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HINTS 



NATIONAL BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, 



AND. 



ON HER RESOURCES 



TO MAINTAIN 



THE PRESENT CONTEST WITH FRANCE, 



BY 



JOHN BRISTED. 



l^EW-YOUK: 

PUBLISHED BY EZRA SARGEANT, BROADWAY, 
OPPOSITE TRINITY CHURCH, 

1809. 



District of JVew-Tork, ss .- 

Be tT Remembered, That on the twenty -fifth day of November, in the 
thirty-fourth year of the independence of the United States of America, Ez- 
I'a Sargeant, of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a 
bonk, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following : viz. 
*' Hints on the National Bankruptcy of Britain, and on her Resources to^ 
maintain the present contest with I'rance. By John Bristed." 

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States entitled «« Aa 
act for the encouragement of learning by securing the copies of maps, 
charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the 
times therein mentioned." And alse to an act entitled " An act supplemen- 
tary to an act entitled An act for the encouragement of learning by securing 
the copies of maps, charts and hooks to the authors and proprietors of 
such Copies during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits 
thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching historical and other 
prints." 

CHARLES CLINTON, Cleric of the district of JVetv-York 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

AS a very general misconception prevails throughout ^e 
United States, respecting the actual condition of the national 
wealth of Britain, and more particiiarly of her public Jinan^ 
ces, I Jiatter myself that a few hours, borrowed from my se- 
verer prof essional studies, might be profitably and I hope not 
unacceptably employed in laying before the American people 
a series of facts developing the real state of Britain s affairs, 
and more especially of her national debt and funding system. 

In the followino- pages tlic sums of money stated always 
mean sterling, unless it be otherzcise particularly mentioned. 

It is not within I he »copc of my present design to touch 
upon the internal system of complicated polity, which 
distinguishes the federal republic of America from all other 
governments ancient or modern ; to descant upon her eigh- 
teen separate, indejyendent sovereignties, each containing its 
own state-executive, legislative, and judicial departments ; her 
federal or general head, with its own separate, superintending 
executive, legislative, and Judicial branches of governme?it ; 
her blind voting by ballot ; her right of universal suffrage ; 
her perpetually recurring elections of federal executive, sena- 
tors, and representatives of state executive, senators and re- 

piesentatixes ; and cf charter offcecrs and setvanls. 

All these and many other jyractical comments upon the 
theories of speculative, metaphysical politicians, are made in 
this country under the most favorable of all jwssible circum- 
stances, namely, a scanty population spread over an immense 
territory, a large body of independent yeomanry, who are 
for the most part lords of the soil which they occupy ; a 
very general diffusion of property ; a monopoly-price of la- 
bor, and the most jealous, fearful exclusion of the two only 
natural and effective aristocracies of man, namely, talent and. 
property, from all poiitic^d power and injiu(;me~ 



ix ADVERTISEMENT. 

Whence, if the great experiment of democracy, which is 
noz0 in operation upon so large a scale in the United States, 
should fail, it fails for ever; and men will he induced once 
more to have recourse to the essential fundamental principles 
of human nature, namely, the ascendency of talent and pro- 
perty, as the only basis, upon tvhich the superstructure of per- 
manent and eflfectual government can ever be reared. 

The considertion of the domestic policy, the foreign relations, 
the manners and habits, the laws, religion, morals, literature 
and science, of this very interesting and unparalleled coun- 
try, zohose institutions are almost entirely unknown to the 
people of Europe, and undoubtedly by no means too dis- 
tinctly iinderstood, at least in their remoter consequences, by 
the generality of the inhabtiancs of these United States, I 
shall take up as soon as I have leisure and opportunity to ar~ 
rarwe the great mass of materials, facts, documents and state 
papers, on this important subject, with which I am furnished 
by the careful and diligent collection of more than three 
years, aided by the abundant and liberal communications of 
some American gentlemen, zvho have distinguished them- 
selves as statesmen of the highest order, by the zeal, fidelity, 
industry, and talent, zcnth which they have discharged the 
most arduous political duties, both in their own country, 
and in the courts of the most powerful European kingdoms. 

JOHN BRISTED. 

2, Hudson-square, New- York, October 80th, 1809 



CONTENTS. 



FIRST DIVISIOJ^. 

CHAPTER I. 

LOUD cry over Europe of impending national bankruptcy 
of Britain, 1 : Statements of M. Hduterive and Arthur O'Con- 
nor examined, 2 : Same notions prevalent in the United 
States, ib. Inconsistency of asserting the national bankruptcy 
of Britain, and also denouncing her as the corruptor of all 
mankind by her wealth, 3 : Different degrees of credit at- 
tached to the British and French governments in the Amer- 
ican money-market, 5 : Monthly average of exchange on 
Britain in New-York for the years 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807, 
1808, 6. 

CHAPTER n. 

Chief writers in the Edinburgh Review enumerated, 8 : 
Amount of British and French taxation, 9 : Expense of col- 
lecting taxes in the two countries, 1 1. 

CHAPTER HI. 

British commerce in 1784 — 1804,13: Its progressive in- 
crease, ib. Price of British tonnage, 14 : Difference between 
the real and custom-house value of British Imports and Ex- 
ports, 15 ; Internal commerce of Britain, 17. 



vi. CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Manufactures of Britain, particularly her ■woollens, 18: 
dumber of sheep in England and Wales, 21 : Annual quan- 
tity of British wool, ib. Chancellor Livingston^?, Essay on 
Sheep, wool, &c. examined and some of its errors in point 
of fact refuted, 22 : Spanish wool is mixed with other 
fleeces in cloth-fabrics, 23 : The finest Spanish wool is im- 
ported into Britain, 24: Price and quality of British wool 
much under-rated, 26: British wool formerly esteemed the 
best in Europe, ib. Spanish wool mended by African inter- 
mixture, 28 : Some species of British wool still very fine, ib, 
Scottish Highland society, 29 : Earl of Selkirk on emigration 
fi-om the Highlands of Scotland, 32 : Marshal Keith and a 
pairof Scottish stockings, 33 : What soil and climate fitted 
to produce fine-woolled sheep, 34 : Different species of 
European sheep, 35 : British sheep intermixed with the 
Spanish Merino, ib. British king's flocks, ib. Prices of 
British Merino wool, 37 : Doctor Parry's Merino-Ryeland 
sheep, id. Lord Somei'ville's sheep-stock, 39 : British Me- 
rino-Ryeland better than Spanish Merino sheep in wool and 
carcass, 43 : British wool makes fine cloth, 44 : And finer 
shawls than the Spanish fleece, 46. 

CHAPTER V. 

Agriculture of Britain, 46 : Proportion and disposition 
of cultivated land in England and Wales, 47 : Undue pro- 
poi'tion of pasture-land in Britain, ib. Remedy for this, 48 : 
Scottish better than the English and Irish farmers, ib. Brit- 
ish Agricultural Societies, 49 : Their use, ib. Great im- 
provements all over Scotland, in agriculture, canals, bridges, 
tillage, implements, See. 52: Caledonian Canal.^ 56: Annual 
amount of British agriculture sufficient for her ordinary con- 
sumption, 57 : Very small supply of gi'ain from Poland, the 
United States, 58. 



CONTENTS. yii 

CHAPTER VI. 

Condition of all classes of society, but more particulai'ly of 
the poor, in Britain far belter now than at any former pe- 
riod, 59 : Effects of progressive improvements of labor in 
Britain on the laboring people, 60 : State of English poor in 
the time of Henry 8th, Elizabeth, Charles 2d, and George 
3d, 61: Increased healthiness in Britain, 62 : Annual 
deaths, 63 : Mr. Maltlius, — English-poor laws impolitic and 
pernicious, ib. Lord Kaimes, 64 : Laboring classes in Bri- 
tain more numerous and more opulent now than hereto- 
fore, 70 : Annual average of people hanged in the reigns of 
Henry the eighth, Elizabeth, and George third, ib. Hint to 
Americans on this subject, 71. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Coal-mines in Britain, 72 : Public revenue in Britain from 
1700 to 1800, inclusive, with the amount of public loans du- 
ring the eighteenth century, 75 : Public expenditure in Bri- 
tain from 1700 to 1800, inclusive, at a medium of every seven 
years, 77 : Heads of public expenditure in 1800, 78: Official 
value of British imports and exports, and apfiarent balance of 
trade, distinguishing the West-India imports, from 1697 to 
1 800, 79 : Present amount of West-India imports into Bri- 
tain, 82 : British supplies and ways and means during the 
wholeof the eighteenth century, 83 : Heads of supplies and 
ways and means for 1799, /5. Supplies for 1800,86: Ex- 
cess of public revenue above a peace expenditure, 88. 

CHAPTER VIIL 

Purchase-money for land in Britain 89 : Progress of inter- 
est, ib : Hoiv low rate of interest raises the price of land, 91 : 
Rent of land how arising, 92: Ordinary market-price of land 
depends on that of interest, 92 : Price of land in France now' 

B 



t?iil CONTENTS. 

in 1809, 93 : Rate of interest in France now ivhy low, 94: No 
paper-money in France and much specie, ivhy, ib. Causes of 
the substitution of paper-money for specie in any country, 96: 
In Britain, ib. The United States, ib. British American colo- 
nies, 96: France, z6. Algiers, t(!». Russia, z7>. Origin of inher- 
es? on money, ib. How regulated by profits on stock 100: 
causes oi low interest, zi. Origin of landed or agricultui'al so- 
ciety, 101 : Their beggarly condition, z3. Oi'igin oi ?nonied 
interest, 102: Oi merchants, ib. Their utility, /(5. Why land- 
holders idle and prodigal, 104: Why commerce makes men 
Industrious and frugal, 105 : Lawyers and physicians general- 
ly frugal, ib. State of Virginia anti-commercial, 106 : In ag- 
ricultui-al society all borrowers and no lenders, 107: Exten- 
sive commerce diminishes the profits on stock, and lowers the 
rate of interest, 108: Which the barometer of national pros- 
perity, 109: Extreme case of momentary depression of inter- 
est, by national ruin, 110: Progressive value of land in Bri- 
tain, 111: General rental of Britain during the eighteenth 
century, 112: Total of British capital, real and personal, with 
its annual produce, 113: Comparative amount of British cap- 
ital in 1700 and 1800, 114: Annual expenditure, national capi- 
tal, and national income of Britain, during the eighteenth cen- 
tury on a medium of twenty-five years, 116: Taxable income 
of Britain, ib. Her amiual expenditure, and annual taxable in-r 
come during the eighteenth century, on a medium of twenty- 
five years, 117: Increased productiveness of British taxes, 
118: Exports, ib. And imports, ib. What proportion of 
public revenue x\\c customs in Britain give, 121: And how 
much she derives annually from the nohole trade of the United 
States, ib. 

SECOJVD DIVISIOA'. 

CHAPTER I. 

JYational debt of Britain, 124: Shall it be sponged, say the 
jacobins, 123: Effects of sponging, ib. General nustake as 



CONTENTS. i:v 

to the rffl/ magnilude of the British public debt, 128: Heads 
of the piibUc funded debt in Britain in 1800, 131 : Difference 
between the real capital borrowed, and the nominal capita! 
funded, 132: Cause of this difference, 133: State of nomi- 
nal and real capital of British national debtin Britain in 1 809, 136. 

CHAPTER n. 

Sinking fund of 1716, 137 : A statement of th6 British fum 
ded debt from 1730 to 1800, inclusive, 138: General view of 
public debts, funded and unfunded, from 1700 to 1786, togeth- 
er with the operations of the sinking fund of 171 6, during that 
time, 140: State of British finances in 1784, 141: Old sink- 
ing fund oi 17 ^d'^ib. JVciv sinking fund oi 1792,142: Sour- 
ces of income to these sinking funds, 1 43 : Every pviblic debt 
in Britain now reduced to a determinable annuity^ 144: Ope- 
ration of the sinking funds in redeeming the national debt from 
1793 to 1800, 145: Annual income of the sinking funds in 
1806, 146; Amoimt of national debt /ja/rf q^ in 1806, 149: 
Several dates when the old sinking fund reaches its maximum, 
and redeems the whole debt incurred before 1792, 151 : Dates 
when the new sinking fund redeems the whole of the debt in- 
curred 5z«C(? 1792, 152: State of the British funded debt, long 
and short annuities, together with the progress of the sinking 
funds from 1786 to 1800, and annual charges, including the 
sums applicable to the reduction of the debt, 153 : The mode 
in which the sinking funds operate to redeem the national debt, 
154: Annual income of the sinking funds in 1809, 159: A- 
mount of capital of debt paid off in 1809, 160 : Illustration of 
the vast progressive force with which the new sinking fund 
outstrips the progress of accumulating debt, 161. 

CHAPTER in. 

Why a maximum imposed upon the old sinkhig fund, 166: 
The Earl of Lauderdale's objections to the principle of the 
sinking funds examined and refuted, 167: The smking fun*v 



X CONTENTS. 

cannot flood Britain with a redundant capital, 1 69 : Their real 
operation on British capital and the prices of stock, 172 : Ob- 
jections to the funding system by Doctor Adam Smith and his 
followers shewn to be false, 177 : It does not unjustly burden 
posterity with debt, 178: It does no^ needlessly annihilate 
national capital Avithout producing an equivalent, 179 : Doc- 
tor Smith's division of a community into productive and un- 
productive demonstrated to be fallacious and inconclusive, 180 : 
Cases of the menial servant, journeyman manufacturer, and 
farm servant, 181 : Mere subsistence is not national wealth, 
185 : Musicians and glass-blowers, il). Why the soldier and 
the judge are /ij'orfwc^/z'e laborers, 184: In what manner all 
the classes of society increase its wealth, 187 : What are the 
equivalents w/n'c/i a national debt produces to a country, 189 : 
The fiolicy and wisdom of the funding system demonstrated, 
191: Growth of national capital, 192: How employed, ib. 
Its progress analogous to that of population, 194 : Checks to 
the inordinate augmentation of nationa! capital, 197: Great 
evils of its redundancy, ib. Comparative national expenditure 
in the different stages of civil society, 198: Necessity of 
funding money, 199: Importance of finance, ib. Funding- 
system gives strength to a nation, 208 : Great evils of paying 
off the ivhole debt, 212 : Vast importance of public revenue to 
a nation, 21 6 : Conclusion that Britain is not a bankrupt, 2 1 &. 

THIRD JDIVISIOjY. 

CHAPTER I. 

Britain supposed to be on the eve of ruin, 219 : Necessary 
results of her destruction, 221 : to her owtz people, /3. Her 
firesent great advantages, 222 : Immediate effects of her 
subjugation to France, ib. In loss of empire, 223: Liberty, 
ib. Property, ib. Industry, ib. Virtue, ib. Happiness, ib^ 

CHAPTER II. 

Effects of Britain's destruction on the world at large, 228 : 
Character of the French nation, 229 : Its morals, manners, 



CONTENTS. xi 

T'overnment, 23 1 : Political prediction of Mr. Burke respec- 
ting the French Revolution, so early as the year 1790, 232: 
Necessary diminution of the wealth, industry, freedom, virtue 
of the world, 235 : Causes of the increase of commerce, 
which shared by different nations, 237 : Foreign relations 
of Britian chiefly commercial, 241 : Brief notice of Euro- 
pean wars for the last hundred and fifty years, 242 : The use 
of subsidies, 243 : The balancing systcin.^ 244 : English 
navigation-act.^ 245: Its effect, 249: Its chief provisions, 
ib. British commercial monopoly^ nuhat.^ ib. European colo- 
nies, ib. Real causes of British comniercial greatness, 250 : 
Essential difference between a naval and a military power, 253 : 
Necessary consequence to the world at large from the de- 
struction of Britain, 256 : Bonafiarte's answer to a Bourdeaux 
petition, 257: State of Europe in the fourth century, 258: 
As to taxes, ib. {Whiskhy insurrection in the Union,) ib. 
On land, ib. On merchandise, ib. Consequent destruction 
of agriculture and commerce, 261 : Extreme tyranny of that 
period, 264: which an object of imitation to Bonaparte, ib. 

CHAPTER III. 

Effects of Britain's destruction upon the United States^ 265 : 
Which then forthwith visited by the conqueror of Europe, 
266 : Present treatment of America by France, 267 : French 
plan of invading these United States, 268 : What defence 
America has against foreign invasion, 271: Militia system 
examined, ib. Distinction between militia-men and real sol- 
dier, 273 : How militia fight, and how they run away, 275 : 
IVhat is the primary duty of a soldier, 276: How soldiers 
are formed, ib. Physical courage, how regulated, 278 ; Hel- 
ped by association, ib. American militia, disorderly, uneffeC' 
tivC) 279 : Individual valor unimportant, ib. Division of la- 
bor necessary in war as in other pursuits, 280 : Citizen sol- 
diers absurd, ib. What are the modes of national defence, 
282 : Superiority of real soldiers over militia-men, 284 : 
The peasantry not the natural defence of a nation, 286: 



xii CONTENTS. 

Make the worst and most expensive troops, 289 : Ueguiar 
army the sure bulwark of national security and power, 290 : 
What the perfection of a military force, 294 : Danger of re- 
lying on militia, ib. Effects of discipline and military tactics, 
ib. Duke of Marlborough, ib. Career of an able and intelli- 
gent invading army, 279 : Militia most exjiensive as well as 
inefficient system of soldiery, 298 : Introduction of regular 
armies a great improvement in political science, 299 : Their 
proper component parts, 301 : The shifting population of 
a country, 302 : Voluntary enlistments analogous to funding 
system, 303 : Militia-system an unjust and oppressive mode 
of taxation, 304 : Great fii-ojligacy resulting from the militia- 
system, 306 : French discipline and tactics, ib. Great want 
of all discipline in the early days of the revolution, 307 : Du- 
mouriez, Rochambeau, Jacobin-club soldiers, 208 : Coward- 
ly, cruel, f6. Kellermann, 310 : Carnot, ib. Strictest disci- 
pline introduced into the French army, 311: Its great suc- 
cess, ib. Invasion of Spain, ib. Dugommier, ib. Bonaparte, 
313: His great UKiprovements in military tactics and dis- 
cipline, ib. Iihinti?note and /a-yoMrz/e generals, 315: Pre- 
sent undisciplined state of Spanish soldiery, 317: American 
7mlitia always ran away during the rcA^olutionary war, 318: 
General Lee, ib. Army of the United Slates, 320 : Conduct 
of the British Generals, ib. Opinion of General Washington 
on the jmVzVfa-system, 321: General Montgomery, ib. Dif- 
ference between raw recruits and soldiers, 325 : Short enlist- 
ments, ib. American Militia /m% as dac? since the revolu- 
tionary war, 327 : Depositions on the Court-Martial of Ge- 
neral! Harmar, 328 : Kentucky-militia, 330 : Pennsylvania- 
militia, ib. Disorderly, ib. Rebellious, 332 : Cowardly, ib. 
ran away on all occasions without firing a gun, ib. Indian 
skirmishes, 336 : Militia mutinous, addicted to democratic 
club-meetings, 338 : Began to pipe and cry at the prospect of 
fighting, 339 : Instance of extraordinarily severe discipline by 
Bonaparte at Bologne in 1804, 340 : Inevitable desti uction of 
these United States in the event of a French invasion, 34! : 



CONTENTS. xiii 

American militia, ib. Army useless, 342 : Conduct of Ge- 
neral Howe with his British troops in the Revolutionary war, 
343 : America would speedily sink into quiet slavery to Bo- 
naparte, 345 : Opinion of Mr. Jefferson on the rapidly ap- 
proaching destruction of Britain, 349: Effect of Britain's 
ruin on the United States, as to want of manufactured. 
goods. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Britain not yet fallen, 353 : Positive and relative condition of 
Prussia, 354: Opinion of the American cabinet at Washington 
respecting the fate of Austria and Britain, 357 : Difficulty of ob- 
taining information about Europe in the United States, 35 3: 
Austrian officers and soldiers good, 359 : Archduke Charles, 
ib. Buttles of Marengo, Austerlitz, Elsinghen, Wagram, 360 : 
Treaties of Luneville, ib. Of Presburg, 361: Great defects 
in the Austrian government, ib. Vast natural resources of 
the Austrian empire, 362 : The peasantry oppressed, 363 : 
Military enrolment, government, monopolies, ib. Absurd 
and ruinous system of taxation, 365. Paper-currency depre- 
ciated, ib. Influence of Bonaparte over the Aulic-Council 
and tlie Austrian officers, 366 : Necessity of reform, ib. 

CHAPTER V. 

General opinion that Sfiain will be speedily subdued by 
France, 368 : Views of American democrats on this subject, 
370 : What resistance has Spain made, and what can she 
make against Bonaparte ? 374 : A''o nation ever yet enslaved by 
a foreign foe if unanimous in opposition, 375 : Resistance of 
the Spaniards to the arms of Rome, ib. Memorable siege of 
the ciiy oi A^imantia, 376: OfSaragossa, 380: OfGerona, 
ib. Spanish officers and soldiers, ib. Juntas, ib. State of 
Spain at the time of its invasion by France in 1808, 381: 
Present disposition of the French armies, S83 : And those of 
Spain and Britain, ib. Great destruction of French troops in 



xiv CONTENTS 

the Peninsula, 385 : French mode of V\'arfare in Spain, 386 : 
Effects of great calamities on nations and individuals', 387 : 
Why Britain should not scnd/;er armies into Spain, 387 : Por- 
tugal not of itself defensible, ib. Must folloTv- the fate of Spain, 
392 : Results to Spain and to the world in the event of the 
patriots succeeding, 893 : Or being vanquished, id. Will the 
conquest of Spain enfeeble Britain ? 397 : Emancipation of 
the Spanish colonies, 399 : Their immense resources, ib. 
Present population, 402 : Great advantage to Britain, ib. 
Junction of the jit Ian tic and Facile oceans, 406 : Its facility, 
ib. Mighty results of such a junction, 407 : Various schemes 
of Hispano-Amcricayi independence, 409 : Miranda, ib. Agree- 
ment with Britain, 409 : Articles of concert between the two 
nations, 410: Quashed by John Adams, President of the 
United States, 413. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Absolute and relative power of France., 414: Over the 
neighboring nations, 415: Particularly over /fa^y, eii. Over 
Austria, /6. Switzerland, 417: Holland, ib. Great and ter- 
rible power of i^rcwce herself, 419 : In population, z6. Re- 
venue, ib. Militarij conscription, 420 : Effects thereof, ib. 
Views and character of Bonafiarte, ib. Democratic opinion 
of the benefits resulting from the universal domination of 
France, 424, 425 : The French conscription-code, ib. Cha- 
racteristic of the present French government, 226 : Spies, 
ib. Police, 427 : Preacher at St. Sulpice, ib. Condition of 
the conscripts, ib. Equalization of property in France, 429 : 
Conscription unequal as well as oppressive, 431 : Great hor- 
ror of the conscription in all Frenchmen, 432 : State of 
France in \2>07, ib. Particularly of Paris, 435: Effects of 
the French police, ib. Great alarm and danger of the French 
government, 437 : The conscription-system still more hate- 
ful to the vassal states of Italy, 438 : the Loav countries, 439 : 
Holland, ib. French civil and military officers monopolizf 



CONTENTS. XV 

continental Europe, 440: Fi'ance attempts to live entirely 
by the plunder of other nations, 441 : French generals, ib. 
Their views and habits, 442 : Why attached to Bonaparte, 
ib. JVo freedom fiosfible for France, 443 : Gross and perfidl: 
ous tyranny of Bonaparte, 444 : Probable speedy destruction 
of continental Europe by the French armies, 445 : Bona- 
parte's unprecedented perversions of the /iress^ 447 : The 
former state of Europe far better than tlie /iresent, 448 : Ba- 
lancing-system^ ib. Dismemberment of Poland., 449 : Break- 
ing up of the Germanic constitution, 450 : Weakness of the 
northern European powers, ib. Russia, 45 1 : Prussia, ib. 
Britain the chief aim of Boiicipdrte, ib. Her destruction 
never to be lost sight of, 452 : French plan of universal con- 
quest, 453 : Parallel between France and Rome, and between 
Britain and Carthage, not correct, 454 : Roman and French 
soldiers dissimilar, 455: Carthage base and cowardly, 456: 
Feeble, unpurposed, democratic, ib. Britain powerful in her 
geographical position, 457 : Government, ib. Naval force 
and courage, 458 : Permanent wealth, ib. Industry, ib. 
Commerce, 459 : Population, ib. Finances, ib. RLpid cir- 
culation of capital, 460 : Bonaparte, ib. Robespierre, ib. 
Marat, ib. France always aiming at universal domination, 
461: Louis the fourteenth, z6. The French revolutionary 
chiefs, 463: Publicola Chausard-j ib. European treaties 
during the last century, 464. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Counter-Checks to the power of France, 465 : In the CorH' 
scri/ition-system, ib. Effective population of a country, 446 : 
Cut away by conscription in France, 467 : Terrible mortality 
of French soldiers, ib. Origin of French generals, id. Proofs 
that the conscription has drained the effective population of 
France, 468 : In anticjiiating the levies, ib. In raisingye wer 
men now than formerly by voluntary enlistment, 469 : In 
guarding France with Germans., ib. In not conquering Spain, lb. 
In not annihilating Austria, ib. Bonaparte's thirtieth Bulle- 

C 



xvi CONTENTS. 

tin, 470 : France and Holland full of old men and boys but 
very few young men^ ib. Day of re-action by continental Eu- 
rope, 471 The French deficient in courage, 4:72: Man by 
nature cowardly, 472 : The position of a celebrated French 
General, 473 : English, Irish, Scottish, Sir Eyre Coote, Rus- 
sians, Germans, Swiss, Prussians, 474 : Spaniards, Dutch, 
Italians, Portuguese, Chinese, 475 : Battle in Germany, ib. 
French officers excellent, 476 : P-oo/s of want of courage 
in the French, 477 : Transcendant talents of Bonaparte and his 
generals, 478 : Great reluctance of the French to join the 
army, ib. General Le Febre, General Laval, 497 : The 
French droop under reverse, 48 1 : Rapid diminution of pi'o- 
ductive industry in France, 482 : Of foreign commerce, of 
manufactures, of agriculture of finances, 485 : Invariable 
tendency to weakness in despotism, ib. Literary Panorama, ib. 
Internal state of France in 1809, 488 : Discontents of the peo- 
ple, ib. Frequent arrests by night, 489 : The conscription 
disabilities contrived, 490 : The taxes insupportable and 
unproductive, ib. The Cadastre, ib. Commerce nearly des- 
troyed, 493: Interest on money, ib. Discount, 495 : Man- 
ufactures crippled, ib. Emigration, 497 : External coun* 
ter-checks to the power of France, ib. In the hatred of 
continental Europe, 498: State of Italy, 499 ; Particularly 
of Holland, z6. Her soldiers, sailors, 501 : Her political fiar- 
ties, 502 : Individual safety the only object of a Dutchman, id. 
foreign commeixe destroyed, ib. Internal trade ruined, 504 : 
Diminution of capital stock its effects, 505 : Bengal, Hol- 
land, their different conditions, 507 : Commercial credit, in 
Britain, Holland, ib. Taxes on the Dutch, 509 : Great dim- 
inution oi Jiopulation in Holland, 510: Friendship of France 
to the Elector of Wirtemberg, 511: Practice of hoarding 
specie among the American Dutch, at Bergen in New-Jer- 
sey, 512. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Power of Britain, 513: Her fio/iulation, ib. As to numbery 
ib* Slovenly census in 1800-1, 514 : as to quality, ib. Her 



CONTENTS. x^ 

effective population, 516: Strength and courage of her people, 
ib. Her naqal exploits, 518 : Her*o/cfie7-s, ib. "Her cavalry, zd. 
Her officers, ib. Qualifications of a commander, 522 : Britain 
not sufficiently military, 523 : Too dtfeni-ve.,ib. Necessity of 
active and effectual war against France, 528. Recent military 
exploits of the British armies, 529 : Abercromby, Moore, £6, 
Wellesley,fii. Sp.inish campaign, 530 : Talents of Britain, ib. 
Denied by democrats, z6. Her /2o/z7ica/ talent questioned, 534 : 
High intellect cannot be concealed, fi. High bounty for talent 
in Britain in every department, 535 : Much talent must gene- 
rally be used in the service of the British government, 536 : 
No necessity for all the great talent of a country to be politic- 
ally employed in an established government, 537 : Edinburgh 
Review^ 538 : A new dynasty requires all a country's talent, 
-539: Inconvenience of too much intellect in a government, 
640 : Lord Chatham, z6. Bonaparte, 541 : Great talent ne- 
cessarily produced in a free country with magnificent institu- 
tions, z6. A democracy firoscribes talent J 5^2 '. M.l\ Broug-hamy 
ib. Occasional loss of great men not felt in a well organized 
country, ib. Britain generally sends ont feeble ambassadors to 
foreign countries, 543 : Ambassadors ought to be statesmen, 
ib. Importance of sending able envoys to the United States, 
544 : French diplomacy, ib. ■ Why France influences the 
secondary nations of the world, 645 : Why primary nations 
are ignoi-ant of each other, 546 : French and British conduct 
to Dutch petitioners, 547 : Views of a resident in a secondary 
nation, ih. M. GentZy 548 : British resident ministers in 
America, ib. Importance of ambassadors, 549 : Brithhforeign 
policy too careless, 550 : Mr. Ste/ihen, ib. Difficulty of pro- 
curing able ambassadors in Britain, 551 : Their impediment 
in the United States, 552 : No such obstacles to the excellence 
of French diplomacy, 555 : Mr. Jackson the existing British 
ambassador to America, 556 : Mr. David JErskine, 557 : Lord 
JErskincy ib. Mr. Munroe, ib. American envoy to Britain, 558 : 
Jbuse always proportioned to the importance of the object, 559 : 
xn France, ib. Britain, 560 : The United States, ib. Speci" 



xxiii CONTENTS. 

menof David Erskine's <zmo?o?M,z&. Political /iar^iVs in Bri- 
tain, 563 : Whig, ih. Tory, ih. Jacobin, b. Edinburgh Re- 
view, 564: Cobbett, zJ, Spanish ambassadors and two Eng- 
lish bull-dogs, 565: Earl of Selkirk, ih. Jacobin circular from 
Liverpool in England, 567 : Question as to the expediency of 
political parties, 570 : Opinion of General Washington, 572: 
Absolute necessity of parties under every free government, 574. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Increase of evangelical religion in Britain, 575 : Its benefi- 
cial consequences, 576 : Battle of Trafalgar, ib. The puri- 
tans, 577 : Oliver Cromwell, ib. Charles the second, ib. Hy- 
pocrisy measui'ed by the extent of true religion, 578 : Pre- 
sent condition of France and Britain, 579: Causes of the 
French revolution assigned by Mr. Burke, 581 : The politic 
cians and the philosophers of France, 582 : Their separate 
views and projects, 77i. The design of the philosophers, 584: 
Tl.e aim of the politicians, ib. The real causes of the French 
revolution, 586: The politicians and philosophers of France 
were effects, not causes, 588 : Pre-existing state of society in 
continental Europe, ib. Popery naturally gravitates to specula- 
tive and practical atheism, and freedom from all moral restraint, 
589: Contrast between protestant and popish countries, z6. 
M. Villiers,ib. Declension of protestantism into deism, 590: 
P actical identity of deism and atheism, 590: Why infidels 
worse in Christian than in pagan countries, 59 1 : Lord Bolmg- 
broke, z6. Definition o{ jacobii^ism, 592: Character of jaco- 
bins, ib. The existing state of society in continental Europe 
availed of by the politicians and philosophers in France, 593 : 
Great and general profligacy in France, 594 : Dialogue be- 
tween a French philosopher and an American statesman, 595 r 
Mr. Windham, 596: Sir James MTntosh, ib. Re-action of 
continental Europe upon France, 597: Three great and dis- 
tinct revelations to man since the fall from God, 598 : At the 
flood, 599 : The coming of Christ, z<5>. The reformation, ib. 
Probable revolution of all continental Europe, 600 : Different 



CONTENTS. xix 

process in Britain, zA. Ireland, ib. JPofiish emancipation^ 601 ; 
Revival of religion in Britain, ib. Why the fundamental doc- 
trines of the gospel not lost in Britain, ib. Frederic the se- 
cond of Prussia and a Polish clergyman, 602 : The sarne Ja- 
cobin, ib. Atheistic experiment made in Britain as in France, 
but failed^ 603 : And also made in the United States, where 
it has succeeded, 604 : T. Paine's Age of Reason, 605 : Ja- 
cobinism in England, ib. Ireland, ib. United Irishmen.^ ib. 
Baltimore mobs, 606 : Pennsylvanian rebellion against the 
Union, ib. Governor Snydei", ib. Governor W ight of Ma- 
ryland, ib. The western states, 607 : Equal distribution of 
property, z<^. Louisiana., 608: Euthanasia of democracy in 
America, ib. Endeavor to destroy the New-England states, 
609: General Hamilton, zd. Fisher Ames, 610: Effects oi 
jacobinism m the United States, ib. Specimen of a democrat- 
ic congregation's devotion, 611 : The southern states gener- 
ally irreligious and immoral, ib. Explosion of jacobin-atheism, 
612 : Its consequences in Finance and in other countries, 613 : 
Richlieu, ib. Eouvois, ib. Bonaparte, 614: Strong attach- 
ment to France now in the United States, 616: French 
foreign and domestic system, ib. Results of French agran- 
dizement, 617: The blockading decrees of Bonaparte, 619 : 
Their supposed effect on Britain, 619: American Embar' 
go^ ib. Colonel Pinckney, ib. General Armstrong, 620 : 
Bonaparte's Imperial audience, ib. Convention of Conti- 
nental Europe, 621: Effects of commerce as to imjiover- 
ishing a nation, 622 : France, ib. Britain ib. Spain, ib. 
Rome, ib. Tyre, ib. Carthage, ib. Venice, ib. Holland, 
ib. As to weakening a nation, ib. Russia, ib. Poland, ib. 
Germany, ib. State of agricultural contrasted with com- 
mercial countries, 623 : As to vitiating a nation, ib. Bri-=- 
tain as to depopulating a nation, 624. Mr. Jefferson., ib. 
France, 625 : The Hanse-Towns, ib. Germans, ib. Scan- 
dinavians, ib. Will Bonaparte's decrees most injure Britain 
or continental Europe? 627. Mr. Flood, /(&. British Euro- 
pean exports, ib. British manufactures increased since the 



XX CONTENTS. 

issuing of these decrees, ib. State of her nvooUem in 1808—9, 
ib. Aggregate trade of the world diminished^ ib. But 
Britain's share of commerce augtnented, ib. British tonnage 
629 : Mr. Comber, ib. Probable issue of the present comr 
mercial contest to continental Europe, 632 : To Britain, ib. 
Sfianish opinion of the event, 634 : real cause of Bonaparte's 
decrees, 637 : difficulty of counteracting human habits, ib. 
Peter the first shaving his subjects, ib. Joseph the second 
burying his people in lime-pits, 641 : American revolutionary 
war, z&. Non-importation act of 1774, 542: Will ^gh tin ^ 
enable Bonaparte to conquer Britain ? 643 : Corunna, ib. 
Talav era, 644: lnva.sion of Sicily, ib. Of Britain, zd. Inevi- 
table consequences of a fieace to Britain, 645 : Her advanta- 
ges in war, 646 : Views and dispositions of Bonaparte, ib. 
Lord Whithworth, 647 : Peace of Amiens, ib. Conduct of 
France at that time, ib. Talents and designs of Bonaparte, 648 : 
Relative condition of Britain and France during the war, 650 : 
Effects of peace on Europe, ib. Systematic French intrigue, 
654 : Continental capitulations, ib. Mode of negociation by 
Bonaparte, 655 : Mr. Fox, 2<^. Lord Lauderdale, 656 : Con- 
tinuance of war, its consequences to France and Britain, 657 : 
Democratic clamor about the evils of war, 658: Only allowa- 
ble terms of peace between Britain and France, 659 : Malta, 
ib. Cape of Good Hope, ib. Safety of continental Europe, 
660: Treaty oi Amiens, ib. Foolish, 661: Inadequate, ib. 
Insolence of Bonaparte, ib. French military spies, 662 : Lord 
Grenville, ib. Colonel Despard, 664: Mr. Addington, ib. 
Britain single-handed invariably superior to France, 665 : Vic- 
tory of the Nile, ib. Of Copenhagen, ib. Of Trafalgar, ib. 
British naval prowess, 666 : Breaking the line at sea, ib. 
What prospect of peace, 667 : Bonaparte, ib. Lord Malmes- 
bury, ib. French Directory, ib. Military despotism far better 
ih^Xi Jacobinism, 669 : For France, 670 : Europe,?^. And the 
world, ib. Condition of man under universal Jacobinism, 67 1 : 
Approach oi re-actien upon France by continental Europe, 672 : 
Marine of Britain and of the other European powers, 673 : The 



CONTENTS. xxi 

«fx^/!(?aff, the death-warrant, or the political salvation of Europe 
and of the world, 674 : Exhausted state of France and the Eu- 
ropean continent, 675 : Britain is entitled to dictate the terms 
of peace, 676 : A maritime peace, what, ib. The only career 
of Britain, 677 : To hasten the day of universal re-action 
against France, 678 : Mr. Burke, 680 : Gradual growth of 
the governments of Christendom, zi^. Of continental Eu- 
rope, 681 : Of Britain, of France, 682 : Absolute incompat- 
ibility of independence in other nations with the present gov- 
ernment of France, 683 : Mr. Burke and Mr. Brougham, 685 : 
Day of continental re-action on France, ib. Declaration of 
ikiQ British gov eminent against Russia in December, 1807, 687. 



HINTS 

ON THE 

NATIONAL BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, 



FIRST DIVISION. 

CHAPTER L 

More than a century has now elapsed, since a 
loud and frequent cry, announcing the speedily 
approaching national bankruptcy of Britain, has 
been heard, not only within the precincts of the 
British dominions, but over by far the greatest 
portion of the continent of Europe. 

Of all the nations, that dread the power, and 
envy the superiority of Britain, France has ever 
been the most industriously employed in propa- 
gating the belief of the instantaneously impen- 
ding bankruptcy of her ancient rival. And, of late 
years, she has increased her zeal to an almost in- 
credible height of enthusiasm and extravagance. 

It was chiefly to effect this purpose, that, to- 
wards the close of the year 1800, Bonaparte or- 

B 



^ HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

dered M. Hauterive, his sub-minister of Foreign 
Relations, standing, indeed, next only to M. Tal- 
leyrand in that department, to write and publish 
the celebrated work, entitled — " De VEtat de la 
France, ^ la Jin de VAn 8." — The great aim 
of M. Hauterive is to persuade the European 
world of the power, the happiness, the virtue, 
and above all, the universal benevolence of 
France j while it is called upon to give equal cre- 
dence to his account of the crimes, the approach- 
ing degradation, and more particularly, the im- 
pending universal bankruptcy of Britain. 

In the year 1804, by the command, also, of Bo- 
naparte, Arthur O'Connor published at Paris a 
pamphlet, called — " The Present State of Great- 
Britain." This Arthur O'Connor is a United 
Irishman, was tried for high treason at Maid- 
stone in Kent, (England) and, through the mista- 
ken lenity of the British government, suffered to 
escape from the gallows into France, where he 
now enjoys the distinction of being a General in 
the French army. 

O'Connor's book has been dispersed, by the ac- 
tive and openly avowed patronage of Bonaparte, 
over all the continent of Europe, with unwearied 
assiduity, and with considerable effect. The in- 
tention of the Irish-Frenchman is to show — " that 
Britain is now, (in 1804) arrived at a point, be- 
yond which her burdens can be no more increas- 
ed ; that she has accumulated five hundred mil- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. S 

iions of debt, purely by means of the paper-credit 
system, and that every step, which she advances 
farther, must be in the gulf of bankruptcy j that 
any continuance of the scheme must increase the 
depreciation of money, and the price of all com- 
modities ; she will be undersold in every foreign 
market ; nations, fresh in the vigor of youth, will 
profit by her decrepitude ; states that have no 
debts to weigh them down will outstrip her in 
every competition ; her taxes will become daily 
less and less productive ; her public funds sink in 
value ; the interest will cease to be paid ; new 
taxes will become impracticable; universal con- 
fusion and disorganization will ensue, and Britain 
fall prostrate, without a struggle, before Frajice 
and the United States of America^" 

It is, therefore, no wonder, that the United 
States, who have been so closely tied to France, 
since the year 1778, down to the present hour, by 
the bond of national gratitude and affection, 
should very generally participate in the French 
sentiments respecting a British national bankrupt- 
cy. And, accordingly, for these fifteen years past, 
a large body of American politicians have been 
anxiously looking out for every fresh arrival from 
Europe to announce the desired catastrophe. 

Before I enter upon that statement of facts 
which, I hope, will put the question of British Na- 
tional Bankruptcy for ever at rest, 1 would beg 
leave to notice a strange but palpable inconsis- 



4 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

tency in the conduct of France and her adherents 
upon this point. I mean, that while she perpetu- 
ally affects to deride, and teaches all her minions 
and vassals in every country throughout the globe 
to deride, Britain as a bankrupt nation, she, and 
her partisans all over the world, are incessantly 
exclaiming against Britain for buying up, and 
corrupting with her wealth, the whole world, ex- 
cept France and her admirers. 

According to these politicians, Britain has, du- 
ring the last fifteen years, been in a state of real 
bankruptcy ; and yet, during all this time, has an- 
nually expended much more money than all the 
■world contains, in keeping the four quarters of 
the globe, Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, 
continually in her pay. It is this Britain, this 
bankrupted Britain, who now, in 1809, bribes, 
•with her gold, all the commercial states in the 
union to dislike those political measures which 
entirely destroy their trade, and consign them to 
hopeless penury ; — she pays money to the Dutch, 
in order that they may object to seeing their fa- 
thers, husbands, sons, and brothers, torn away by 
the French conscription-system, and hurried on- 
ward to the field of carnage, to gratify the indi- 
vidual selfish vanity, and family-ambition, of an 
upstart usurper i — she gives great largesses to in- 
duce Austria to make one last bloody stand for 
'national existence against the common enemy of 
mankind ; — and, finally, she excites, by the pro- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, kc. 6 

digal distribution of her wealth, the heroic Span- 
iards to resist Bonaparte, who comes to rob them 
of their government and personal liberty, and to 
transfer them, like a herd of cattle selected for the 
slaughter, from the hands of the infatuated Charles 
to those of Joseph Napoleon. 

Nay, those very men, who incessantly prate 
about the inevitably impending bankruptcy of 
Britain, will go into the American money-market, 
and give ten per cent, above par for bills drawn 
on this same British, bankrupted, government. 
During the last five months of the American em- 
bargo, British government bills bore a regular pre- 
mium often per cent, in the money-market of the 
United States. And the non-intercourse act, al- 
though it has been in operation only a few weeks, 
has already raised British bills in this country, 
whether drawn upon the government of Britain, 
or on English individuals, to five per cent, above 
par. 

The following monthly average of exchange on 
Britain, in the New-York money-market, (which 
regulates all the other markets in the union) for 
the years 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807, and 1808, was 
furnished to me by the most eminent money-bro- 
ker in the continent of America. 



HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 



January 


1804. 


1805. 


1806. 


1807. 


1808. 


103 


99i 


96i 


97^ 


102i 


February 


103|- 


99 


98i 


98J 


103 


March 


102i 


98 


99 


99 


103i 


April 


1031 


98i 


100 J 


98 


107 


May 


103 


98 


par. 


98 


108 


June 


102 J 


95 


par. 


98 


106 J 


July 


102i 


95 


99 


97i 


106^ 


August 


102 


95 


98^ 


96J 


106 


September 


102 


97^ 


par. 


97 


106 


October 


102 


98 


99i 


m 


106 


November 


loii 


99 


99 


par. 


107 


December 


par. 


98 


98|- 


102 


110 



The exchange on Britain bore a steady average 
often per cent, above par, in the New-York money- 
market, from December, 1808, until it fell down 
rapidly to par, or nearly to par, in consequence 
of Mr. David Erskine's patching up an agreement 
with Mr. Madison, in April, 1809, in direct viola- 
tion of the instructions which he had received from 
the British government. 

Some few months since, a French government- 
bill, of only one thousand dollars in value, was of- 
fered for sale in New-York ; and could not be dis- 
posed of at any price. The English traders laugh- 
ed at the tender of a French money-bill to them ; 
the Americans doubted the paper of his Imperial 
and Royal Majesty ; and at length it was declined 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 7 

by a respectable Swiss merchant, who — " could 
not afford to buy it, because" as he said, " the 
French government are not in the habit of pay- 
ing their bills." 

The man, who hawked about this bill for sale, 
was finally obliged to transmit it to France at his 
own risque ; for he well knew, that it was in vain 
to apply to the French merchants in New-York ; 
because the few French mercantile houses that had 
ever ventured to purchase bills drawn upon the 
government of the Great Nation had long since 
been ruined; there being very rarely any instances 
of bills, drawn on the French government, and 
purchased by merchants in the United States, ha- 
ving ever been paid. 



CHAPTER II. 

This subject, however, demands a little serious 
consideration J for, perhaps, on no points, relating 
to Britain, are the people of the union n)ore com- 
pletely misinformed, than on those, respecting her 
finances and national resources. On all sides, 
we hear that the horrible weight of taxation grinds 
her people down to the dust, and must, infallibly, 
soon stop the operations of her government. 



8 HINTS ON THE NATION At 

The complete refutation of this error I shall ex- 
tract from a work, whose authority on all the 
great subjects of general science, and of political 
economy, more particularly, will be doubted by no 
one, who is informed that some men, the most il- 
lustrious for talent and knowledge, who, at this 
day, adorn and enlighten Europe, are its chief 
supporters, I mean the Edinburgh Review, whose 
pages are illumined by the productions of the Earl 
of Aberdeen ; of Lord Henry Petty, late chan- 
cellor of the British exchequer ; of Mr. Broug- 
ham, author of " An Inquiry into the Colonial Pol- 
icy of the European Powers," an admirable work, 
which will be better understood, and more cor- 
rectly appreciated, a century hence than it now is ; 
of Mr. Horner ; of Mr. Jeffray ; of Mr. Play- 
fair, the professor of natural philosophy in the 
university of Edinburgh ; of Mr. Hamilton, 
cousin-german to our late ever to be lamented 
and unrivalled General Hamilton of New-York ; 
of Mr. Murray, a son of the late Lord Hender- 
land ; of Mr. Cockburn, son of Baron Cockburn 
of the exchequer ; of Mr. Napier ; of the Revd. 
Sidney Smith; and some other gentlemen of dis- 
tinguished abilities, and comprehensive informa- 
tion. 

In the twenty-sixth number of the Edinburgh 
Review, page four hundred and forty-eight, may 
be found the following note. 

" Montesquieu remarks, that in moderate go- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 9 

vernments there is an indemnity for the weight of 
taxes, which is liberty. In despotic countries^ 
that there is an equivalent for liberty, which is the 
lightness of the taxes, (L'Esprit des Lois, liv. 13, 
c. 12.) The French have scarcely this consola- 
tion as yet. The budget of 1807 states the whole 
receipts of the treasury for the preceding year 
at nine hundred and eighty-six millions, nine hun- 
dred and ninety-two thousand, five hundred and 
thirty-nine livres. It is well known to their offi- 
cers, that this printed amount falls greatly short of 
what is actually collected. The real revenue may 
be estimated at fifty-five millions sterling. 

" Peuchet calculates the whole product of in- 
dustry, throughout the empire, at something 
more than two hundred and fifty millions sterling. 
This, however, must be greatly exaggerated, as he 
includes a large amount for colonial produce. 

*' In Colquhoun's Tables for 1803, the whole in- 
come of England and Wales (excluding Scotland 
and Ireland) is rated at two hundred and twenty- 
two millions sterling; the whole taxes, including 
war-imposts and the poor rates, at forty millions. 
This is eighteen per cent, upon the national income. 
It is stated, that the proportion, to the opulent, is 
about tiaenty-eight per cent, to the middling tioen- 
ty, to the thh'd sixteen^ and to the laboring clas- 
ses about nine per cent, on their respective in- 
comes. 

'' It may be well to annex herc^ the oflTicial state- 
C 



W HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

ment of the French Minister of finances, on the 
operation of the property-tax in France. He is 
suggesting the necessity of reform in the mode of 
collection, and states, that — while some proprie- 
tors paid, in 1806, the fourth, the thirds the moiety, 
and still more, of their incomes, others were only 
taxed at the rate of one twentieth, one tenth, and. 
one hundredth ! He adds, that this evil may not 
he so sensibly felt in the great towns, but indul- 
ges in an emphatic exclamation, concerning its 
influence on the happiness of families in the coun- 
try. 

" Adopting the preceding data, with regard to 
France, conjecturing what must be the situation 
of he.r tributary states, at this moment, and con- 
sidering our resources, we may still, perhaps, ap- 
ply to the present period a remark made by Mr. 
Burke in 1769— "that England is more lightly 
taxed than any other country in Europe ; with a 
system of collection infinitely less vexatious and 
oppressive." 

In confirmation of the assertion, that the sys- 
tem of collecting the taxes in Britain is neither 
vexatious nor oppressive, I shall add a statement 
of the expense attending the collection of the rev- 
enue of the kingdom, including all the establish* 
ments; as made-by the Committee of Finance to 
the House of Commons in the year 1797. I shall 
extract it from a very valuable work, to which ma^- 
ny references will be made, in the course of the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 11 

following pages ; — I mean, " A brief examina- 
tion into the increase of the revenue, commerce, 
and navigation of Great Britain, during the admin- 
istration of the Right Hon. William Pitt ; with al- 
lusions to some of the principal events, which oc- 
curred in that period, and a sketch of Mr. Pitt's 
character ;" by the right Hon. George Rose, M. 
P. (the father of the Special Minister, who was 
sent by the British government to the United 
States, in the spring of 1806, on account of the 
Chesapeake transaction) published at London in 
1806. 

Mr. Rose, in p. 54 — 5, states the charges on 
the gross receipt to be, in 1797, 

£ s. d. per cent. 

Customs, ...... 6 2 6 

Excise, 4 12 1 

Stamps, 4 17 7 

Taxes, 3 12 5 

In the post-office, a large part of the expense in- 
curred, is for the conveyance of letters by land 
and sea. On the whole revenue, as increased 
since 1797, and under the change of management 
of a part of it, the expense of collection in 180^ 
was reduced to 

£, s. d. per cent. 

Customs, 5 4 7 

Excise, 3 7 

Stamps, 3 5 



12 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

In the taxes there is hardly any variation, as the 
poundage is uniform. To these charges nothing 
is to be added for defalcations by remittances, or 
for failure of collectors, receivers, &c. &c. &c. as 
there have not been losses, in the public revenue, 
to the amount of more than nine hundred pounds 
sterling (nearly all of which has been lost by let- 
ter-carriers, &c.) in the whole, from these, or other 
causes, during some years past. 

The average expense of collecting the French 
taxes is stated to be rather more than one third of 
the gross amount, that is, thii'fy-threc and a third 
per cent, fraud and peculation being qualities in- 
separably attendant upon all the officers, primary 
and subordinate, of that extensive empire. 

Mr. Rose, p. 44, statesthe permanent taxes in Bri- 
tain, in the year 1805, to amount to ^32,083,000. 

Mr. Comber in his " Inquiry into the state of na- 
tional subsistence, as connected with the progress 
of wealth and population," published at I-,ondon, 
in the year 1808, appendix, p. 42, states the pre- 
sent annual burden of Britain, including her poor- 
rates, and every other impost, to be as follows ; 

Permanent taxes and hereditary 
revenue, £ 38,414,099 

War-tax, property-tax, and inci- 
dents, 21,775,315 

Total, 60,189,414 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN. 18 



CHAPTER III. 

The only question then is, what are the means 
which enable Britain to support this annual bur- 
den of taxation ? 

This question will be satisfactorily answered, 
by a view of the actual condition of her national 
resources, and more especially that part of her sys- 
tem of finance called the sinking funds. 

Notwithstanding Bonaparte's blockading de- 
crees, and their various reinforcements by the ob- 
sequious edicts and acts of his vassal-states, the 
commerce of Britain, during the year 1808, as 
appears from the statements made in the House of 
Commons in the spring of 1809, exceeded in quan- 
tity and in value that of any former year. And 
during the latter part of 1808, and the beginning 
of 1809, the freight of British shipping averaged 
from eight to ten pounds sterling a ton on the 
voyage ; and half that sum on the passage ; so in- 
adequate is the whole immense tonnage of Britain 
to carry on her extensive trade. The ordinary 
price of freight in Britain, before the American 
embargo was laid, amounted to from three to four 
pounds sterling a ton on the voyage, and from 
thirty to forty shillings on the passage. 

Mr. Rose, in the work above cited, p. 96 — 7, 
thus rates the navigation of Britain in the years 



14 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

1784 and 1805, shewing the great increase m this 
department of her wealth, during the course of 
twenty years ; more than ten of which were em- 
ployed in sustaining the burdens of the most ex- 
pensive and trying war ever recorded in the an- 
nals of human history. 

Navigation, 1784. 1805. 

Tons. Tons. 

Shipping belonging to Great 
Britain and her colonies, 

Ireland not included, . 1,301,000 Q,'226,000 
Number of seamen employed 
in that shipping in the mer- 
chants' service, . . . 101,870 152,642 



For the same years Mr. Rose gives the follow- 
ing statement of the commerce of Britain. 

Commerce. 1784. 1805. 

£ £ 

Imports, form British colo- 
nies, and from posses- 
sions in India, . . . 6,751,000 13,271,000 

from Ireland, . 1,820,000 3,010,000 

from foreign coun- 
tries, 6,573,000 13,221,000 



Total, . . . 15,144,000 29,502,000 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, kc. 15 

1784. 1805. 

Exports of British manu* 
factures to British posses- 
sions, 3,757,000 9,322,000 

Exports to foreign coun- 
tries, 7,517,000 14,613,000 



Total, . . . 11,274,000 23,935,000 



1784. 1805. 

£ £ 



Exports of foreign mer- 
chandise, .... 3,846,000 12,227,000 



The above are the custom-house valuations, ac- 
cording to rules established more than a century 
ago. But the real value of the exports of British 
manufactures, in the tw^o periods, were as follows: 

In 1784. In 1805. 

£ 18,603,000 £ 41,068,000 



The real value of the British exports of foreign 
merchandise, during these two years, Mr. Rose 
does not state ; but Mr. M'Arthur, in his — " Fi- 
nancial and political facts of the eighteenth and 
present century," — published at London, in 1803, 



16 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

page 8, — explains the precise difference between 
the official, or custom-house, and the real value of 
British imports and exports, to be about seventy 
per cent, in favor of the real value. 

The official value, says Mr. M'Arthur, of 

British exports for the year, ending on the 5th 

of January 1801, as laid before parliament, was, 

of British manufactures, in value, £, 24,411,067 

of Foreign merchandise, . . . 17,466,145 



Total of annual exports, £ 41,877,213 



But the operations of the convoy-tax have 
proved, that the real value of British exports ex- 
ceeds in the proportion of seventy per cent, the 
official value ; whence the real value of British 
exports, during the year 1800, was, 

of British manufactures, . £ 41,498,813 
of Foreign merchandise, . . 29,172,449 



Total annual value, . . £ 70,671,262 
To which add the real value of im- 
ports into Britain during that year, £ 45,000,000 



Total annual value of Bri- 
tish imports and exports, . . £ 115,671,262 



Eight years of progressive national industry, 
and of continually accumulating national stock, 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 17 

or capital, have considerably increased the annual 
quantity of British commerce since the year 1800 ; 
for the malignant, but futile, attempts of Bonaparte 
to annihilate the trade of the whole world, cannot 
countervail the habits and the wants of mankind, 
who are compelled, in the present situation of hu- 
man aifairs, to have recourse to Britain, as the only 
market, which can supply them with many arti- 
cles of prime and indispensable necessity, as well 
as of convenience and comfort. 

If such be the state of Britain's foreign com- 
merce, of what extent must be her internal trade ; 
seeing that the greatest and most important branch 
of the commerce of every nation is that which is 
carried on by the inhabitants of the towns with 
those of the country ? The townsmen draw from 
the people of the country the rude produce, for 
which they pay, by sending back into the country 
a part of this rude produce manufactured and pre- 
pared for immediate use. 

Or, in other words, this trade between town and 
country consists in a given quantity of rude pro- 
duce being passed in exchange for a given quan- 
tity of manufactured produce. In this direct 
home-trade, two British capitals are employed, 
one in putting in motion the country-trade, and 
the other in moving the town-trade ; whereas, in 
her foreign commerce, whether it be direct, or 
round-about, there can, in general, be only one 
British capital used; namely, that employed in 



18 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

the British exports, the imports being the pro- 
duce, and, consequently, the capital, of some other 
country. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The following statement of the manufactures of 
Britain, in the year 1800, extracted from Mr. 
Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, 4th volume, 
p, 549, will, perhaps, have a tendency to show, in 
conjunction with other facts, that the British peo- 
ple are not yet altogether trembling on the verge 
of national bankruptcy. 

The same observation, as to the annual increase 
of the value of British commodities, in conse- 
quence of the progressive augmentation of pro- 
ductive industry, and of national capital, applies 
equally to the subject of manufactures, as to that 
of commerce. 

Woollen goods, annual produce, £ 19,000,000 

.^ export, 8,000,000 

home-con- 
sumption, 11,000,000 

Cotton goods, annual produce, 10,000,000 
*- export, 4,000,000 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 19 

Cotton goods, annual home-con- 
sumption, . c£ 6,000,000 

Flaxen goods, home-consumption, 2,000,000 

Hempen do. do. 2,000,000 

Silk do. do. 3,000,000 

Leather, in shoes, boots, sadle- 
ry, harness, military accoutre- 
ments, carriages, &c. home- 
consumption, 12,000,000 

Glass, (plate-glass, of late much 

improved) home-consumption, 2,000,000 

Porcelain and pottery (much im- 
proved in the last twenty years) 
home-consumption, . . . 2,000,000 

Paper (increased in price and 

quantity) home-consumption, 1,500,000 

Hardware, (made at Birmingham, 
Sheffield, &c.) home-consump- 
tion, 6,000,000 

Beer, annual home-consumption, 
200,000,000 of gallons, at Is, 
per gallon, 10,000,000 

Spirits, annual home-consumption, 
10,000,000 of gallons, at 8^. 
per gallon, 4,000,000 

Soap, for 2,260,802, families, at 
3^d. per week, home-consump- 
tion, above 1,500,000 

Salt, 46,000 tons, of 40 bushels 
each, (not including smuggled 
salt) annual home-consumption, 1,000,000 



20 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

Candles, wax and tallow, annual 

home-consumption, above ,£ 2,000,000 

White lead, and other colors, for 
painters and dyers, turpentine, 
casks, vats for liquors, drugs, 
hats, straw-work, snuff, horn, 
books, furniture, musical in- 
struments, watches, jewellery, 
coaches, and other carriages, 
printing apparatus, salted beef, 
pork, butter, fish, &c. &c. an- 
nual home-consumption, above 10,000,000 



Annual amount of British manu- 
factures for home-consumption, £ 76,000,000 

British maimfactures for annual 

exportation in 1800, . . . 40,000,000 



Total annual value of Bri- 
tish manufactures, £ 116,000,000 



From the following statement of Mr. M'Ar- 
thur, in the sixty-fifth page of his introduction, it 
will appear, that Mr. Macpherson has considera- 
bly under-rated the annual value of British wool- 
lens, as far, at least, as relates to their home-con- 
sumption, by omitting to notice the fabrics made 
from imported wool. 

It is computed, that about three millions of 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. ^1 

souls are employed in the British woollen manu- 
facture, and the trades dependent upon it ; a piece 
of broad-cloth passing through a hundred differ- 
ent hands in finding its way, through the various 
stages of its fabric, from the wool-grower to the 
consumer. Add to which the number of persons 
employed in the many different trades dependent 
on the woollen manufacture. 

The quantity of Spanish wool, imported into 
Britain, in the beginning of the eighteenth centu- 
ry, was annually about one million of pounds 
weight; but in the year 1803, as appears from 
documents, laid before a Committee of the House 
of Commons 32,000 bags of fine wool were impor- 
ted; which, at 200 lbs. weight for each bag, 
amounts to 6,400,000 pounds weight ; and valu- 
ing each pound at six shillings, it constitutes a 
total value of i; 1,920,000. 

From the testimony of some of the principal 
manufacturers and dealers in wool, as laid before 
the Parliament in the year 1800, it was shown, 
that the quantity of fine and other wool, produced 
from the estimated number of 28,800,000 sheep, in 
England alone, (not including Scotland and Ire- 
land) amounted, on an average, annually, to 
600,000 packs, of 240. lbs each, making a total of 
144,000,000 of pounds weight, and valuing each 
pack at eleven pounds sterling, or each pound at 
eleven pence and a fraction, it will constitute a 
total value of £, 6,600,000 for the native wool, as 



32 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

a raw material. In its manufactured state, the 
value, being at least tripled, will amount to 
£ 19,800,000. 

If to this value of British native wool, in a man- 
ufactured state, we add the value of the fabric 
from fnie wool imported into Britain, multiplying 
the value of the raw material by three, namely 
£ 1,920,000 + 3 = ^6 5,760,000 it will give a total 
annual value of fine and coarse fabrics, amounting 

to £ 25,560,000 

of which is annually exported an 

amount of 8,500,000 

leaving an annual home-consumptio7i of 17,060,000 



being six millions and sixty thousand pounds ster- 
ling more than Mr. Macpherson allots to the year- 
ly home-consumption of woollens in Britain. 

A very elaborate essay has been published, 
within these twelve months past, (in August 1808) 
on sheep, wool, and woollen manufactures, by Ro- 
bert R. Livingston, L. L, D. president of the so- 
ciety for the promotion of useful arts in the State 
of New-York; generally called Cliancellor Li- 
vingston in the United States, but better known 
in Europe, as the American minister, who bought 
Louisiana of Bonaparte, for the general govern- 
ment of the Union. 

The great reputation of Mr. Livingston, as an 
agricultural philosopher, renders it necessary to 
notice some errors in point oifact, relating to the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 23 

fleece, sheep, and woollen manufactures of Britain, 
and also to the Spanish wool. 

I have this day received An Essay on Sheep, &c. 
by Mr. Livingston, published in September 1809 ; 
but, after examining it, I do not find, that he has 
materially corrected the errors of his last year*s 
production ; he speaks, indeed, in terms a little less 
contemptuous of the prices and quality of British 
wool, which he has discovered to be not quite so 
low, nor so bad, as he imagined twelve months 
since. I shall, therefore, state the positions, as 
applicable to Mr. Livingston's Essay, published 
in 1 808, omitting all consideration of that put forth 
in 1809, because the facts to be stated in the fol- 
lowing pages are of themselves sufficiently impor- 
tant to deserve notice. 

1. Mr. Livingston positively asserts, that Span- 
ish wool cannot be mixed with any other species 
of wool ; but that it is always worked up alone 
into cloth of different degrees of fineness, accord- 
ing to the quality of the staple. 

But~in the first volume of Mr. Macpherson's 
Annals of Commerce, p. 651, it is expressly sta- 
ted, that Spanish wool was carried to Flanders, but 
could not be made into fine cloth zvithout a mix- 
ture of English wool, v/hich was then the chief sup- 
port of the Flemish manufacture. 

And in the year 1744, as cited by Mr. Macpher- 
son, 3d vol. p. 240, the British Turkey or Levant 
Company distinctly stated at the bar of the 



S4 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

House of Commons that the French, under the 
auspices of their then Minister, the celebrated 
M. Colbert, had greatly improved and extended 
their woollen manufacture by mixing one third of 
the wool of the province of Languedoc with two 
thirds of Spanish wool, and had thus beaten the 
English out of the Turkey markets. 
And, at this day, if Mr. Livingston will take the 
trouble of inquiring of any intelligent British 
woollen-manufacturer, he may be informed, that 
Spanish and British wools are continually worked 
up together in the manufacture of fine cloths. It 
is a common question in the cloth-halls of York- 
shire, in England, to ask, — How much Spanish 
wool is there in this piece ? — and the answer gen- 
erally is, — half and half j — that is, half Spanish and 
half English wool. 

Neither is it true, as Mr. Livingston also round- 
ly asserts, that the British native wool is only 
capable of being made into coarse cloths. Fine 
broad cloth, up to the price of fifteen or sixteen 
shillings a yard, is, every day, made entirely of En- 
glish wool ; — cloth, from fifteen to twenty shillings 
a yard, is made of Spanish and English wool mix- 
ed; and superfine cloth, from twenty to thirty 
shillings a yard and upwards, is made altogether 
of Spanish wool. These prices relate to cloth in 
its iindi^essed state ; when it comes to the hand of 
the consumer, of course, the cost is considerably 
enhanced. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 25 

2. Mr. Livingston declares, that the finest Span- 
ish wool never goes to Britain j because, one 
year, the price happened to be higher at Madrid 
than in London ; and in 1796, Mr. Livingston as- 
sures us, England imported six millions of pounds 
weight of wool from Spain. 

Now, both these assertions are incorrect ; for, 
by examining the table of British imports, for the 
year 1796, as published in the 4th vol. p. 527, of 
Mr. Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, we shall 
find, that there were imported into Britain, during 
that year only three millions four hundred thou- 
sand and two hundred and thirty six pounds 
weight of Spanish wool, and 53,975 pounds 
weight of other wool. 

Nor is Mr. Livingston's reasoning conclusive 
to show, that the finest sort of Spanish wool never 
goes to England ; namely, because in the year 
1796, the price of Spanish wool was higher at 
Madrid than in London; a circumstance which 
might easily be occasioned by a sudden glut of 
Spanish wool in the London market. It sometimes 
happens, that cloth of British manufacture is sold 
at a less price here, in the city of New- York, than 
cloth of the same quality is in London. Would 
Mr. Livingston infer from this, that the British 
cloth, so sold at New-York, was never imported 
into the United States from Britain ? 

The fact is notorious, that the finest Spanish wool 
is constantly imported into Britain, which, indeed, 

E 



m HiNTS ON THE NATIONAL 

might «j&mn, he inferred from this circumstance, 
that Britain imports thelargest quantity annually, 
and can afford to pay the best price for Spanish 
wool. And yet, by an unaccountable mode of 
reasoning, Mr. Livingston draws two inferences 
from two facts, which, to an ordinary logician, 
would suggest precisely opposite conclusions. 

In the year 1796, says Mr. Livingston, England 
imported six millions of pounds weight of Spanish 
wool, while France, during that year, imported 
pnly six hundred thousand pounds weight ; and, 
therefore, England never gets any of the finer wool 
from Spain ; and France makes better cloths than 
Britain. Q. E. D. 

3. Mr. Livingston very much under-rates the 
price of British wool, when he puts the coarsest 
at only seven pence half-penny per pound weight, 
and the finest at one shilling a pound. It is evi- 
dent, also, that he industriously compares the 
finest Spanish wool, that has been picked, sor- 
ted, washed, and prepared for the market, with 
the coarsest British wool, still remaining in the 
fleece. 

But the finest British wool, namely, that from 
the South-down sheep, is sold at from forty to fifty 
pounds sterling the pack, which contains 240lbs. 
weight y and, consequently, this wool is always 
above three shillings, and, sometimes above four 
shillings the pound weight, instead of being only 
pMe shilling as Mr. Livingston states. And the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN* &C, S7 

coarsest British wool is sold at from twelve to fif- 
teen pounds sterling a pack ; and, therefore, al- 
waj'^s costs one shilling, and sometimes more than 
one shilling a pomid, and not only seven pence 
and a half-penny, as Mr. Livingston asserts. 

4. Mr. Livingston very greatly under-rates the 
quality of British wool, when he says, that it is 
only capable of being worked up into coarse cloths. 
And, in his calculations as to the most profitable 
breed of sheep, he carefully compares the quality 
of the finest Spanish wool, from the Merino breed, 
with that of the coarsest British, namely the Dur- 
ham and the Dishley breeds ; omitting all consi- 
deration of the South-down, the Herefordshire, the 
Ryeland, and some other species of English wool, 
which do not fall very far short of Spanish wool., 
in the fineness and evenness of their staple. 

As the quality of British wool, and an inquiry 
into the means of improving its staple, is a sub- 
ject of very considerable importance, not only to 
Britain, but to other nations whose wants are sup- 
plied, and whose conveniences and comforts are 
augmented by the use of British woollens, perhaps 
it may be excusable to enter somewhat at length 
into this question. 

It will be seen, by the following references to, 
and extracts from, respectable authorities, that-^ 
formerly, British wool was reckoned to be of a 
finer quality than the Spanish ;— that it is sup' 
posed to have, in general, degenerated, but that in 



28 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

some parts of Britain, it yet retains all its native 
excellence ; and lastly, that of late years, several 
successful attempts have been made to improve 
the staple by an intermixture of the Spanish Me- 
rinos with the flocks of Britain. 

Mr. Macpherson, in the 4th volume of his very 
valuable and laborious work^ the Annals of Com- 
merce, p. 204, says, that from many incontrover- 
tible facts related in several scattered parts of the 
first volume, it is sufficiently shown in what high 
estimation the wool of England was held, and 
with what avidity it was sought after by foreign 
manufacturers, especially those of the Netherlands, 
Italy, and Spain, which last country now produces 
the best wool in Europe. 

Yet in the sixteenth century Guicciardini de- 
scribes the English wool as superior to that of 
Spain, which he ranks as next in quality and va- 
lue. He also repeatedly mentions the wool of 
Scotland as being then in great request in the Ne- 
therlands. Indeed, wool was the chief article of 
the Scottish exports, till the year 1581, when its 
exportation was strictly prohibited by the Parlia- 
ment. In Camden's time, the wool of Leominster 
was the pride of Herefordshire, and preferred all 
over Europe to every other wool, except the 
Apulian and Tarentine. 

The Spaniards ascribe the improvement of their 
wool to a stock of rams, obtained from the Arabs 
of Africa by Cardinal Ximenes in tlie early part 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN. 29 

of the sixteenth century. They had been accus- 
tomed, theretofore, to import English sheep into 
Spain, in order to mend the Spanish breed. And 
as it plainly appears, that Spanish wool has only 
lately attained its superiority over the other Eu- 
ropean wools, and that British wool was universal- 
ly esteemed to be the best in Europe, down to 
the beginning of the seventeenth century, it may 
be asked, what has now become of that breed of 
sheep in Britain, which produced wool of such su- 
perior quality ? 

This breed must have degenerated ; and it is 
supposed, that the laws, which prevent the expor- 
tation of wool from Britain, although intended for 
the benefit of the manufacturer, have, by turning 
the attention of the former to the weight of the 
carcass, rather than to the quality of the wool, 
been the real cause of the degeneracy of the Bri- 
tish sheep, and coiisequently of the importation 
of fine wool. 

The Herefordshire breed still retain much of 
that superiority of wool, for which their progeni- 
tors were formerly celebrated ; and, perhaps, they 
are the least adulterated remains of the ancient 
stock of British sheep, now existing in the main 
land of Britain. But their wool is greatly inferior 
to that of the fine Vvoolled sheep of Scotland, which 
by the advantage of their remote insular situa- 
tion, have, probably, remained uncontaminated by 
any mixture with inferior breeds, and are, appa- 



30 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

rently, the most genuine offspring of the ancient 
British race gf fine-woolled sheep. 

About the year 1790, many gentlemen, in dif- 
ferent parts of Britain, turned their attention to the 
improvement of the breed of fine-woolled sheep. 
At an anniversary meeting of the Bath Society for 
the encouragement of agriculture, arts, manufac- 
tures and commerce, a number of sheep of v ari- 
ous kinds were inspected, in order to ascertain 
which is the most advantageous breed for general 
stock, in respect to carcass and wool ; and the 
small-boned Leister and the South-down breeds 
were adjadged to be the most profitable. 

The attention of the Highland Society was more 
especially directed to the recovery of the superior 
quality of the Scottish wool ; the report of their 
committee, published in the year 1790, states that 
there are two kinds of fme-woolled sheep in the 
Shetland Islands, of which that called the kindly 
sheep is almost entirely covered with wool of a 
most excellent quality, worth at least five shillings 
sterling per pound ; the other species having the 
line wool only about the neck and some other parts 
of the body. 

Yet the people who possess this most precious 
wool, are so deficient in its management, and es- 
pecially in sorting it, that they work up the finest 
along with the coarse wool of inferior sheep, in 
knitting stockings, which they sell at from three 
pence to three shillings a pair ; (whereas stock- 
ings made entirely of the finest wool are sold at as 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 31 

high a rate as two guineas for each pair) whence it 
often happens, that some of them contain as much 
fine wool, as is worth more, in a raw state, than the 
price of the manufactured stockings. 

The Society strongly recommended it to the 
proprietors of the small islands to attend to their 
breed of sheep, which such sea-girt pastures can 
best preserve from being debased by mixing with 
sheep of inferior quality ; to obtain the best breed- 
ing kinds, especially selecting the finest rams j to 
breed only the best species, and to extirpate the 
inferior kinds as soon as possible. 

From the communications of the ministers of 
several of the islands for Sir John Sinclair's Statis- 
tical Account of Scotland, it appears that these isl- 
ands already possess a breed of sheep, producing 
wool of a very fine quality, although not equal to 
the best Shetland wool. 

To these observations of Mr. Macpherson it 
might be added, that the process, begun some few 
years since, and now (in 1809) still going on in 
the Highlands, and western islands of Scotland, I 
mean, the breaking up of the old clannish, or feu- 
dal tenures, by which the peasantry had theretofore 
held their farms, and converting the system of cot- 
tar-husbandry, or crofting, (as the Scottish call it) 
into extensive sheep-pastures, according to the 
present more improved modes of agriculture, will, 
in all probability, tend materially to improve the 
quality of British wool ; by turning the attention 



32 HINTS ON THE NA.TIONAL 

of intelligent farmers: towards the attainment of 
that important object, which can only be accom- 
plished by carefully selecting and properly man- 
aging the best breeds of fine-woolled sheep ; and 
by judiciously picking and sorting- the wool, 
when shorn, according to the different qualities of 
its staple. 

Now, neither of these desirable purposes could 
ever possibly be accomplished on the small farms, 
and by the scanty capital of the former rude and 
unproductive system of husbandry, which remain- 
ed until lately, and was cherished by the military 
services, on the performance of which, together 
with a small rent paid in kind, the Scottish high- 
landers were accustomed to hold their lands. 

For a full exposition of the great national re- 
sults to be expected from the breaking up of 
these old, patriarchal tenures, and the consequent 
introduction of a better order of agriculture into 
the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, the reader 
will do well to consult and to study the very inter- 
esting and able work of the Earl of Selkirk, enti- 
tled — " Observations on the present state of the 
Highlands of Scotland, with a view of the causes 
and probable consequences of Emigration 5" — 
published at Edinburgh, in I8O6. 

In the 58th volume of the Monthly Review, p. 
256* — we are informed, in a Review of Anderson's 

* I am obliged to refer to this very meritorious and valuable 
repository not only of British, but of European science and 1;- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. S^ 

Observations on the means of exciting a spi- 
rit of National Industry, &c. published in the 
year 1777, that very fine wool is produced in 
Scotland ; an assertion which Mr. Anderson cor- 
roborates by relating the following fact. 

About the beginning of Lord Chatham's famous 
war, in the middle of the eighteenth century, the 
magistrates of Aberdeen, a town in the north of 
Scotland, much celebrated for its manufactures of 
worsted stockings, resolved to make their country- 
man, Marshal Keith, then in the service of Frede- 
ric 2nd, King of Prussia, a present of a pair of 
stockings of an extraordinary degree of fineness. 
They, therefore, obtained from London some 
pounds of the very finest Spanish wool, which 
they put into the hands of the women, who were 
appointed to manufacture the Marshal's stockings. 

But these women complained of the coarse qua- 
lity of the Spanish wool, from a pound weight of 
which they could only draw forty heeres, each 
heere being a thread of six hundred yards in 
length; whereas, from the Scottish Highland wool 
they could spin to the fineness of seventy heeres 
to the pound ; the Scottish Highland wool 
being finer than that of the best Spanish Merino- 
fleece, in the proportion of seven to four. 

terature in general for more than half a century past; because 
I do not possess, neither can I procure in this country, the ori- 
ginal works on the subject now under examination, which are 
criticised by the Monthly Reviewers, 

F 



34 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

Accordingly, the stockings were made of High- 
land wool, and when finished, were valued at 
more than five guineas, being so fine, that al- 
though of the largest size, they were easily drawn, 
both together, through an ordinary thumb-ring. 
They were sent to Marshal Keith, who presented 
them to the Empress of Russia. 

Mr. Anderson states a vast variety of other facts 
to prove the existence of fine wool in many parts 
of Scotland ; and labors much to show that uni- 
formly cold climates are peculiarly calculated for 
the production of the finest wool. He also en- 
deavors to point out, how the quality of the wool 
may be improved or debased, independently of 
the influence of climate j and concludes, that the 
chief requisite towards improvement is a minute 
attention to the qualities of that particular variety 
of the animal employed in breeding. 

I would beg leave to observe, that, although Mr. 
Anderson is correct in his inference as to im- 
proving the quality of the fleece, hy crossing the 
breeds of sheep, yet he appears to be too confi- 
dent in his position, that the uniformly cold cli- 
mates are the best adapted for the production of 
fine wool. 

It is, indeed, true, that about a century since, 
Sweden imported Merino-sheep from Spain, and 
has been so successful in breeding them, that the 
present (in 1809) Swedish stock of pure and mix- 
ed Merino amounts to above one hundred thou- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &c. 35 

sand ; and no deterioration in the quality of the 
wool, or of the carcass, has taken place. In- 
to Norway, also, and Denmark, Saxony, Prussia, 
Germany, Holland, Britain, France, Italy, the 
Cape of Good Hope, and New-South Wales, has 
the Spanish Merino been imported ; and in all 
these countries been propagated with success. 

Now, whatever we might attribute to the cold of 
the more northern of these countries ; it cannot 
be the cold of France, or of Italy, or of the Cape 
of Good Hope, or of New-South AVales, which 
produces such fine wool. I am inclined to think, 
that the climate is by no means so essential to the 
quality of the fleece, as the peculiar breed of the 
sheep itself is. 

In the 64th volume of the Monthly Review, p. 
533, in the examination of a memoir of M. Du 
Rondeau, published in the year 1780, in the Me- 
ftioirs of the Imperial and Royal Academy of Sci- 
ences and Belles Lettres, at Brussels, we are told, 
that in ancient times the Belgic wool was prefer- 
red to that of Calabria and Apulia ; and that the 
Spaniards, as far back as the days of the Romans, 
greatly improved their wool by coupling African 
rams with Iberian ewes; but this improvement 
was of short duration, owing to the negligence of 
the Spanish agriculturalists. 

The attempt, however, was successfully renewed 
by Don Pedro, the fourth king of Castile; whence 
the origin of that fine breed of sheep, which con- 



36 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

stitutes the chief opulence of Old Castile. This 
breed, also, having degenerated through the care- 
lessness and incapacity of the Spanish keepers, was 
restored to its pristine excellence by the Cardinal 
Ximenes, who imported a large stock of African 
rams in the sixteenth century ; and this superior 
breed of sheep has since been spread through all 
the parts of Spain, whose pastures are similar to 
those of Segovia. 

The free use of air, and the disuse of folds con- 
tribute much to maintain the excellence of this 
breed ; the Spanish shepherds invariably perceiv- 
ing a dimunition of their sheep, and a deteriora- 
tion in the quality of their wool, whenever they 
shut up their flocks in folds. 

The English wool grew into great repute about 
the middle of the fifteenth century, when three 
thousand sheep were transported from Castile to 
England, and there propagated with success. 

The French, under their great minister, Colbert, 
attempted to form a fine breed of sheep in France ; 
but failed, in consequence of depriving their flocks 
of the free use of air. A blunder into which it is 
singular that the French, whose climate is so mild, 
should fall; when it is well known, that the Tar- 
tars of Great-Thibet, or Bouton, whose wool is 
beautiful, and in high request, never fold, or con- 
fine their sheep, though the air of that region is 
extremely cold, and the earth is covered with snow 
above Ave months in the year. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 37 

The wether of Flanders is of the largest kind in 
Europe ; this species of sheep was brought by the 
Dutch from the East-Indies, in the seventeenth 
century -, and its wool is almost equal to that of the 
English, in length, whiteness, fineness, and strength. 
The attempts to raise this breed in England were 
unsuccessful ; but it thrives in several parts of Hol- 
land, and may prosper in Brabant, Hainault, and 
several districts of Flanders. 

Upon the whole, M. Du Rondeau recommends 
the English method of managing sheep, as the most 
eligible, and the best adapted to restore to the 
Flemings, the lucrative branch of commerce, 
consisting of the growth and manufacture of wool, 
which the English and the Spaniards have carried 
away from them. 

It only remains to show, that, of late years, seve- 
ral successful attempts have been made in Eng- 
land to improve the quality of British wool by an 
intermixture of the sheep of Britain with the Span- 
ish Merinos. 

We learn from Mr. Macpherson's Annals of Com- 
merce, 4th vol. p. 524, that, during several years 
past, his Britannic Majesty has kept a flock of 
sheep of the true Merino breed, the quality of 
whose wool has nothing degenerated by continu- 
ing in the climate and pasture of Britain. A long 
experience has uniformly proved that the cross of 
a Merino ram increases the quantity, and improves 
the quality of the native, short- woolled, British 



38 



HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 



sheep, particularly the South-down, Hereford, 
and Devonshire breeds. 

Encouraged by these facts, the British Monarch 
obtained from the Marchioness del Campo de 
Alange, in the year ITQ'i, five rams and thirty-five 
ewes of the Negretti breed, which is as highly es- 
teemed as any sheep in Spain, for purity of blood, 
and fineness of wool. These, with their descen- 
dants, are carefully kept upon the King's farm at 
Oatlands. 

Though the wool of all these sheep, the Merino, 
as well as the Negretti, was equal in quality to 
any imported Spanish wool, yet, at first, the Bri- 
tish manufacturers would not buy it, wherefore, 
the King ordered it to be manufactured, and it 
made excellent superfine cloth. The manufactu- 
rers were then suffered to buy the wool at their own 
price; and the following table shows the gradual 
augmentation of its money-value, in proportion as 
its excellence became more generally known. 



QUALITY AND PRICE PER POUND, 


YEARS. FIRST. 


SECOND. 


THIRD, 


Total Sale. 


1796. 


as. per lb. 








1797. 


is. '■2(1. per lb. 






£. s. d. 


1798— eighty-nine 


167 lb. at 5s. 


23 lb. at Ss. 


13 lb. at 2s. 




fleeces, 


per lb. 


6rf. per lb. 


fid. per lb. 


47 8 


1799 — one Inindreti 


-'07 lb. at .-is. 


.'8 lb. at Ss. 


19 lb. at 2s. 




and one fleeces. 


6d. per lb. 


6d. per lb. 


per lb. 


63 14 6 


Rani's wool of 1798 


181 lb. at 4s. 


2 '2 lb. at 3s. 


12 lb. at 2s. 




—9. 


6d. per lb. 


6d. per lb. 


per lb. 


45 15 6 



Observe, that in the year 1799, when this Bri- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 39 

tish wool of 1798 — 9 was sold, the price of Span- 
ish wool in the London market was higher than 
ever it was before ; yet no wool from Spain, was, 
daring that year, sold for more than 5s. Qd. — ex- 
cept a very small quantity, which fetched 5s. 9d. 
per pound. The London market prices of Span- 
ish wool in the year 1808, were, for Seville, per lb. 
3s. Ad. to 5s. 3d. for Segovia, from 6s. to Qs. 6d. 
and for Leonese, from 6s. 6d. to 6s. 9d. 

In order to render the propagation of so valuable 
a race of sheep as extensive as possible, his Britan- 
nic Majesty gave a hundred of his rams, and ma- 
ny of his ewes, as presents to different persons ; 
and that the improvement of the staple commodi- 
ty of Britain might be accessible to all, he ordered 
a number of the rams and ewes to be occasionally 
drafted from his flocks, and sold to any one, who 
chose to be the purchaser. 

In the 11 6th volume of the Monthly Review p. 
324, from an examination of a work by Doctor 
Parry, a celebrated physician of Bath, as to the 
practicability of producing in the British Isles 
clothing wool equal to that of Spain, published in 
the year 1800, it appears, that a breed of sheep 
can be produced and kept up in Britain, whose 
wool is equal in quality to that of Spain ; and that 
it would be advantageous to the farmer individu- 
ally, and to the public in general, to cherish such 
a breed in the British Isles. 

Doctor Parry chose the Ryeland breed of sheep. 



4o Hints on the national 

as the basis of an attempt to improve British wool 
by an admixture with the Spanish race. He com- 
menced his experiments in the year 1792, by sen- 
ding four ewes to the Spanish ram, belonging to 
the Bath Agricultural Society, and two ewes to 
another ram, belonging to the late Earl Bathurst, 
both given by the King. 

The breed, thus obtained by Dr. Parry, are en- 
tirely enveloped in wool, which grows under the 
jaws, down the forehead to the eyes, under the bel- 
ly, and down the legs to the very feet. It covers 
the skin very thickly, scarcely gives way to the 
even pressure of the hand, but yields by starts, like 
the close, short hair of an extremely fine clothes- 
brush. In washing the sheep, the water penetrates 
to the skin with great difficulty. 

The fleece of these sheep is heavier, in propor- 
tion to their carcass, than that of any other known 
breed in Europe. In the raw state (that is, un- 
washed, on the sheep's back, or afterwards) the 
fleeces of the two shear-ewes average A^ lb. aver- 
dupoise; the weight of the living ewe being sixty 
pounds, the proportion of wool to that of carcass 
is about one to twelve and a half. The fleece of 
a fat wether, of the same age, will be from five to 
seven pounds. From a ram of seventy pounds 
and a half living weight, in 1797, I3r. Parry clip- 
ped eight pounds two ounces of raw wool. 

The length of the staple or filaments averages 
three inches and a quarter, and the wool is of uni- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 41 

form fineness in different parts of the fleece; even 
in those parts, which, in other breeds, generally 
produce the best and the worst wool ; namely, the 
shoulder and the breech. This wool contains a 
great deal oi yolk, or oil, but is wholly free from 
stickel, hairs, or kemps. The breed is also ver}'^ 
healthy -, and the nature of the food, whether hay, 
grass, chicory, Scottish cabbage, or oil-cakes, in 
indefinite proportions, given so as to maintain a 
certain quantity of flesh, makes no obvious differ- 
ence in the fineness of the wool. 

This breed is small, and the carcass is not so 
finely formed as that of the present fashionable 
breeds in Britain. The wethers, when tolerably 
fat, weigh from twelve to fiiteen pounds per quar- 
ter, and the ewes from ten to twelve pounds ; the 
flavor of the mutton is excellent. The smallest 
breed of sheep is the most profitable, both as to 
flesh and wool. 

Nevertheless, adds Dr. Parry, fine wool cannot 
be produced by only one or two crosses with Spa- 
nish rams from any breed of ewes in England. 
The sheep must have at least five-sixths of the 
Spanish blood. One or two descents will improve 
the quality, and greatly increase the quantity of 
wool ; but it will require many more crosses to 
produce wool equal in quality to that of the Spa- 
nish Merino. 

In the 133d volume of the Monthly Review, p. 
415, in an examination of the tenth volume of 

G 



42 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

Letters and Papers of the Bath Agricultural So- 
ciety, published in the year 1807, we are inform- 
ed, that from ten fleeces of Merino wool, out of 
Lord Somerville's flock, were made fourteen and 
a half yards of broad-cloth, (of the usual superfine 
breadth) which was, in respect of fineness of wool, 
somewhat inferior to the best superfine cloth. Dr. 
Parry, and some other agriculturalists, however, 
were more successful than Lord Somerville. The 
Merino race surpass other sheep in excellence of 
carcass, as well as in quality of fleece. 

Lord Somerville, also, laid claim to a premium 
for producing the greatest number, and the most 
profitable sort of sheep. His Lordship's sheep- 
stock were the Merino breed crossed with the Rye- 
land, and amounted to 302 lambs, and 783 store 
sheep, total 1,085. Their produce was : 

£. s. d. 
Wool, twelve packs and one score, 

worth 446 

216 store sheep, sold for ... 409 3 

132 fat sheep, sold and used, . 238 16 2 

Letting rams, -524 10 



These sheep were depastured on 188 acres, with 
the run of S3 acres of turnips ; and the whole re- 
ceipt, deducting 26/. for extra feed, amounted to 
l,o92/. 9s. 2rf. 

Dr. Parry, in an address to the Society, on this 
sheep-stock of Lord Somerville, observes, that the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 43 

profit of his Lordship's stock amounted to 9/. Is. 
3d. per acre. And, in another address, Dr. Par- 
ry communicates the result of his own experience ; 
as to Merinos crossed with Ry elands, in the form 
of the following propositions : 

1. That the wool of the fourth cross of this breed 
is fully equal in fineness to that of the male pa- 
rent stock, (the Spanish Merino) in England. 

2. By breeding from select Merino-Ry eland 
rams and ewes of this stock, sheep may be obtain- 
ed whose fleeces are superior to those of the cross- 
breed parents ; and, consequently, to those of the 
original progenitors of the pure Merino blood in 
England. 

3. From mixed rams of this breed may be ob- 
tained sheep, having wool, at least equal in fine- 
ness to the best which can be procured from Spain. 

4. Wool, from sheep of a proper modification 
of Merino and Ryeland, will make cloth equal to 
that made from the Spanish wool, which is impor- 
ted into Britain. 

5. The proportion of fine wool, in the fleeces 
of this cross-breed, is equal, if not superior to that 
of the best Spanish piles. 

6. This wool is more profitable in the manufac- 
ture than the best Spanish wool. 

7. The lamb's wool of the Merino-Ryeland 
breed will make finer cloth than the best of that 
of the pure Merino breed. 

8. Should long wool, of this degree of fineness, 
be wanted for shawls, or any manufactures, whicii 



44 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

cannot be perfected with the common, coarse, long 
British wools, this can be effected by allowing the 
ram's fleece to remain on the animal unshorn for 
two years. 

9. That although Doctor Parry never selected 
a breeding ram or ewe, on account of any other 
quality than the fineness of the fleece, this stock is 
already much improved as to the form of its car- 
cass, comparatively with the Merinos originally 
imported. 

I sliall only add two circumstances, both con- 
clusive as to the qualify of British wool, which es- 
caped my recollection while I was examining Mr. 
Livingston's assertions on this subject. 

1, Since the annual produce of wool in England, 
from twenty-eight millions eight hundred thou- 
sand sheep, amounts to six hundred thousand 
packs, which, at two hundred and forty pounds a 
pack, gives a yearly produce of one hundred and 
forty-four millions of pounds weight, the wdiole or 
nearly the whole of which is worked up into wool- 
len manufactures in the British Isles ; and since 
the annual importation of Spanish wool into Britain 
averages four millions of pounds weight ^ we 
might, without any fear of refutation, infer, that 
British wool can and does make some fabrics a lit- 
tle finer than those merely of the coarse cloths, 
which Mr. Livingston denies; inasmuch as the 
British fine woollen bear a much greater propor- 
tion to the British coarse woollen cloths, than that 
<if foiir to one hundred and forty-four. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 45 

2. It is a notorious fact, that on the 23d of June 
1806, at Mr. Coke's Annual Meeting for the en- 
couragement of Agriculture, at his seat in Holkam, 
Norfolk, England, Mr. John Herring, junior, re- 
ceived a premium for producing three shawls, ma- 
nufactured by Messrs. John Herring and sons, of 
Norwich, in England, entirely of Mr. Coke's South- 
down fleece. 

And, at this same meeting, Mr. Toilet, a very 
extensive breeder of Merino sheep in England, de- 
clared, that he had tried all kinds of wool, and had 
proved that in Britain could be grown avooI equal, 
if not superior, to that of the finest Spanish fleeces. 
And that, after the fairest, and frequently repeated 
trials, Mr. Coke's South-down wool was found to 
be better fitted for the shawl manufactory than the 
finest Spanish wool, or any mixture of it. 



CHAPTER V. 

It is a universally received truth, that a better 
and a more productive system of agriculture pre- 
vails in Britain than in any other country on the 
face of the earth ; that more capital, industry, 
knowledge, and talent, are applied to the cultiva- 
tion of land; and that the flourishing state of Bri- 



46 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

tish manufactures and commerce ensures the pro- 
gressive improvement of agricultural pursuits, by 
creating a constant, and a perpetually widening 
demand for the rude produce of the soil. 

Mr. Comber, p. 193 of the body of his book, 
and in p. 52 of the appendix, gives the following 
table of the proportion of land cultivated for the 
different kinds of crops, in England and Wales. 

Acres. 

Wheat, 3,160,000 

Barley and Rye, 86,000 

Oats and beans, 2,872,000 

Clover, rye grass, &:c 1,149,000 

Koots and cabbages, cultivated by the 

plough, 1,150,C00 

Fallow, 2,297,000 

Hop-grounds, 36,000 

Nursery grounds, 9,000 

Fruit, and kitchen gardens, cultivated 

by the spade, 41,000 

Pleasure-grounds, 16,000 

Land depastured by cattle, . . . 17,479,000 

Hedge- rows, copses, and woods, . . 1,641,000 

Ways, water, &c 1,316,000 

Total of acres cultivated, . . . 32,027,000 
Commons, and waste lands, .... 6,473,000 

Total of acres in England and 



o 



Wales 38,500,000 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 47 

The general diffusion of wealth, throughout 
Britain, in consequence of the wonderful ex- 
tension of its industry, has been attended, not 
only by an increased consumption, and almost 
general substitution of wheat for other grain, but 
by a more extended and nearly universal use of 
animal food. The improvements, made in this 
branch of farming, were attended with considera- 
ble profit, not merely, from the natural consequen- 
ces of these progressive improvements, but from 
the continually increasing demand, and increased 
ability of the consumers. 

It naturally requires a larger extent of territory 
to support the same number of persons on animal 
than on vegetable food ; and when the mode of 
raising, and of feeding cattle on rich and fertile 
lands, became general in Britain, it occasioned a 
very serious competition in the employment of 
land for tillage. To these advantages in favor of 
grazing was to be added the greater certainty at- 
tending its operations, in comparison with those of 
tillage ; the fewer laborers required on a pasture 
than on a corn-farm ; and the exemption from so 
great an amount of ecclesiastical tithes. 

From a combination of all these circumstances, 
a very great proportion of the cultivated lands of 
England and Wales is employed in depasturing, 
and raising animal food for the consumption of the 
people. That employed for pasture alone amounts 
to seventeen and a half mdlions of acres, besides 



48 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

upwards of five millions used in the growth of oats, 
beans, clover, artificial grasses, turnips, cabbages, 
&c. for feeding cattle. 

There are, also, six millions of acres of common 
and waste land, which, if used at all, are employ- 
ed in feeding cattle, and may be considered as 
equal to a million and a half of acres of cultivated 
land; making a total of twenty-four millions of 
acres, devoted to the raising of food for those ani- 
mals, which administer to the pleasure, the labor, 
and the consumption of man. The quantity of 
land employed in the cultivation of wheat in En- 
gland and Wales, amounts to three millions, one 
hundred and sixty thousand acres ; and in raising 
every other species of vegetable food for man, nine 
hundred and thirty-eight thousand acres are used j 
making a total of only a little more than four mil- 
lions of acres, and about one sixth of the quantity 
of land, which is directed to the raising of animal 
food for the inhabitants of Britain. 

It is evident, therefore, that, at present, less than 
a due proportion of land in England and Wales is 
devoted to the cultivation of grain. This incon- 
venience, however, will soon remedy itself, unless 
the British government should interfere with any 
regulations operating upon the corn-farmers. If 
the competition in agricultural employments be 
left perfectly free to find its own level, the present 
disproportion between the quantity of land in Bri- 
tain employed in grazing, and that used in tillage. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 49 

will soon cease, and a proper adjustment take 
place of its own accord. 

For the very high profits upon grazlng-stock 
will, naturally, divert so much capital from other 
pursuits, into the channel of pasture-farming, as to 
diminish these profits below the level of those 
which the corn-farmers obtain from the use of 
their capital employed in tillage ; and then, con- 
sequently, a portion of the surplus grazing capi- 
tal will be directed to the breaking up of new 
ground with the plough, and thus extend the com- 
pass and the produce of tillage-husbandry. 

It ought to be noticed, that the Scottish farmers 
excel those of England and Wales in their mode 
of managing land ; and, in consequence of their 
improved systemof agriculture, can afford, and do 
actually pay, a larger rent to the proprietors of 
the soil, than can be drawn for the same number 
of acres from their more southern brethren. The 
farmers in Ireland, also, are gradually emerging 
from their rude, miserable, unproductive mode of 
cottar-husbandry, and becoming agriculturalists oil 
a more enlightened and extensive scale; after the 
manner of their English and Scottish neighbours. 

It should be remarked, as greatly in favor of the 
Scottish system of husbandry, that the farmers in 
Scotland are not afflicted with the pressure of ec- 
clesiastical tithes, nor the absurd custom of rack, 
or annual rent : their farms being generally held 
on long, and, sometimes, on open leases, 

H 



50 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

I willingly borrow some interesting observations 
from the 33d, 34th and 36th numbers, for the 
months of March, June, and December, of the 
year 1808, p. 97,213, and 520, of the Farmer's 
Magazine, an able and popular periodical work, 
exclusively devoted to agriculture and rural af- 
fairs, published quarterly, in Edinburgh, respec- 
ting the agricultural improvements in Britain, and 
more particularly in the Scottish section of the 
Kingdom. 

Should the territory of Great Britain not be im- 
proved to the extent permitted by physical cir- 
cumstances, the deficiency cannot be attributed 
to any want of public and private societies, estab- 
lished for the express purpose of benefiting and 
promoting agriculture in all its branches ; either 
by conferring reward, bestowing advice, or fur- 
nishing protection to those concerned in carrying 
it on. 

These institutions may be classed under twa 
heads — 1st, The societies, whose operations are 
not confined to a local district, but extended over 
the whole Island, or, at least, a considerable por- 
tion of it ; such as, the Society of Arts kc. in Lon- 
don ; the Trustees for Fisheries and Improvements 
in Scotland ; the Bath and West of England Soci- 
ety ; the Highland Society; and, though last, not 
least, the National Board of Agriculture. — 2nd, 
The county and parochial societies, mostly esta- 
blished since agriculture became a fashionable art^ 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C, 51 

and which are so numerous as to set calculation 
at defiance. 

In a word, no country in the known world is so 
liberally supplied with agricultural societies as 
Britain ; and if improvement could go forward in 
a degree proportional to the number of hands en- 
gaged in promoting it, the British Isles would, in 
a short time, wear the face of a terrestrial Paradise. 

There are various obstacles in the way of agri- 
cultural improvement, not to be removed hy indi- 
vidual strength ; though they may be successfully 
combatted, and overcome, by the joint force of a so- 
ciety of persons leagued together for the purpose 
of accomplishing one common object. The col- 
lision of sentiment occasioned at such meetings, 
serves to place the human mind in something like 
a state of requisition for the public good, by which 
latent genius may be drawn forth, and made to act 
upon a stage, where, otherwise, it would never have 
appeared. 

We live at a period, not only of greater inter- 
est, in respect to the events which take place upon 
the political theatre, but more pleasingly interes- 
ting than any former epoch, from the rapid and 
§t«ady course with which the people of Britain, 
and more especially the Scottish portion of that 
people, advance towards perfection in their sys- 
tem of agriculture, and those improvements which 
are calculated to encourage it. 

The last thirty ^ears have, indeed, been the 



52 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

commencement of a new era to Scotland ; and a 
person, who left it twenty-five years since, will, 
on his return no doubt, be very agreeably surprised 
at the prosperous and opulent appearance^ both of 
the country and of the towns. The time is not re- 
mote ,when the nakedness of the Scottish moun- 
tains and vallies was almost proverbial ; and the 
cities of Caledonia, with the exception of Glas- 
gow, presented little better than a spectacle of 
meanness and decay. 

With all our partiality as Scottishmen, we can- 
not but admit, that our fore-fathers little under- 
stood the art of living comfortably ; and those, 
who rem.ember the state of filth, in the midst of 
which they passed their lives in the towns, can 
hardly escape some emotions of disgust at the 
recollection. These days are, however, past ; 
and, perhaps, the greatest change for the better, 
■which has ever, in so short a time, taken place in 
any part of the earth, has been produced over 
Scotland generally. 

Those, who knew Edinburgh and Leith thirty 
years ago, can best contrast their appearance and 
comforts, at that period, with the present splendid 
and imposing aspect of the Scottish capital, and 
its sea-port. >The mind is almost bewildered in 
endeavouring to trace the causes of such a change, 
from the excess of meanness to the height of mag- 
nificence; and when we survey the country, we 
are equally'surprised by the improvement of its 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 53 

cultivation, and the extent of the thriving planta- 
tions, which shelter and adorn it in every direc- 
tion. 

In proceeding north from Edinburgh, Perth first 
attracts the attention. A few years since, it was 
an ugly, mean place, with nothing to excite admi- 
ration, except the beauty of its situation, and the 
grandeur of its bridge. At present, it is one of 
the prettiest towns in Europe, and displays all the 
fascinations of architecture, and all the elegance 
of regularity. Aberdeen has likewise greatly in- 
creased, both in beauty and population. Peter- 
head, from a trifling village, has become a hand- 
some town. Every other town in the north has 
increased in size, cleanliness, and beauty ; nay, 
even Inverness is fast emerging from its dusky 
liue, into regularity and splendor. In every other 
part of Scotland similar advances have been made ; 
and Glasgow, so long super-eminent in beauty, still 
by new exertions maintains her superiority. 

But the improvements which are of most impor- 
tance to the farmer, are the new roads and bridges, 
"which, not only facilitate the labors of the travel- 
ler, but add, in a very great degree, to the comforts of 
the husbandman. Every thing which the farmer 
requires for the produce of his crop, and every 
step which he must take for the disposal of his 
harvest, and of his cattle, must be subject to the 
direct influences of easy, or of difficult communi- 
cation J and the richest country, without easy 



54 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

means of intercourse between its different parts, 
both contiguous and remote, must soon yield the 
palm of fertility and of value, to districts naturally 
sterile, but enjoying the inestimable advantages of 
free and facile communication. 

The bridges over the Spay, and the Findhorn 
have been finished for some time ; and are both 
works of the greatest beauty and utility. The no- 
ble bridge at Dunkeld is far advanced towards 
completion ; and, united with the superb scenery 
at that romantic place, will surpass any structures 
of a similar kind, in Britain. Bridges are soon to be 
commenced over the rivers to the north of Inver- 
ness ; so that, in a short time, the whole of the 
waters in the north of Scotland will present no ob- 
stacle to the intercourse of the inhabitants, in that 
section of the country. 

These improvements, and those likewise going 
forward in England and Ireland, are the more en- 
couraging to the lover of his country, from the so- 
licitude, which the French display in pushing on- 
ward similar works, in every part of their im- 
mense empire. In some respects, they surpass 
the British in the nobleness of their works ; such 
as, the grandeur of their public roads, and the 
beautiful wharfs, which adorn many of their mari- 
time and inland cities ; while in bridges and ca- 
nals, they fall far below the people of Britain. 
France has no bridges to boast of, any way com- 
parable to those which adorn the cities of London 
and Westminster. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 55 

Except the canal of Languedoc, and that which 
unites the Seine to the Loire, there were no canals, 
until latel}^ of any consequence in France. At 
present we hear of several, and they seem to be 
carried on with spirit. It would be difficult to 
give a description of the canals in England ; they 
are so numerous, and so well constructed. The 
munificence of the British government, in the pre- 
sent reign, has made Scotland the mistress of a 
canal, of larger dimensions than any other coun- 
try can boast. The largest canals in Europe can 
only carry vessels of limited tonnage ; but the Ca- 
ledonian canal is calculated for frigates of thirty- 
two guns. It is carried on with great vigor and 
judgment, and, vvhen finished, will be a noble re- 
membrance of Britain's present excellent Sove- 
reign. 

Few countries are so well provided with suit- 
able implements for executing rural labor as is 
Great-Britain \ and to this circumstance, in a great 
measure, we may attribute the increased and in- 
creasing perfection of her agriculture. She has 
ploughs of all the different kinds which at any time 
have been invented ; whilst harrows, wheel-carri* 
ages, and other common implements of various 
constructions and dimensions are equally nume- 
rous. 

But it is in the articles which, strictly speaking, 
may be called agricultural machinery, that the su- 
periority of Britain is most conspicuous. Drills 



66 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

for sowing grain and other seeds, have been con- 
structed upon scientific principles; and machines 
for separating grain from the straw, and for 
cleaning it from the offal, with which it was inter- 
mixed, have been brought to a high degree of 
perfection. 

Imperfect kibor is a necessary consequence of 
defective implements. In former times, the con- 
struction of rural machinery was almost entirely 
left to rude and ignorant artisans, whose opera- 
tions were guided by no fixed and determinate 
principle, and with whom any shadow of improve- 
ment was altogether out of sight, because every 
thing of that nature was regarded as superfluous 
and unnecessary. The principles on which 
ploughs, aud other rural implements should be con- 
structed, have of late been ascertained with ma- 
thematical precision ; and artisans, in every dis- 
trict, have been enabled to imitate, what they had 
not genius suflicient to invent. 

To Small, Bailey, Meikle, and many other in- 
genious men, the British public are under great 
obligations for bringing agricultural machinery to 
its present perfect state. In consequence of their 
exertions, labor is executed in a style vastly supe- 
rior to what was formerly practicable. Owing to 
more perfect labor, a greater produce is obtained 
from the earth. This has increased the rent-roll 
of the proprietors without lessening the welfare 
or prosperity of the occupiers. In a word, the in- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 67 

terest of the state has been, in like manner, pro- 
moted, by the increased supply of the necessaries 
of life, furnished in consequence of this labor-im- 
proving machinery ; without which, neither the 
manufactures, nor the commerce of Britain could 
have been so extensively undertaken. 

Upon the whole, the British system of agricuU 
ture is so good, that, notwithstanding the compa- 
ratively small quantity of land employed in the cul- 
tivation of wheat, the annual growth of that graia 
in the United Kingdom is adequate to the usual 
and ordinary consumption of its inhabitants, as is 
demonstrated by the experience of the years 1806 
and 1807, each of which produced twelve millions 
of quarters of wheat, being the quantity yearly con- 
sumed by the whole British population. 

Hence, it is manifest, that the stocks of Poland, 
of the United States, and of some other grain-bear- 
ing countries, which are occasionally imported in- 
to Britam, bear so small a proportion to the whole 
consumption of the British isles, as to do very little 
more than cause small temporary fluctuations in 
the money-price of wheat, while their influence is 
too feeble to be felt, either in increasing or dimi- 
nishing the wants or the comforts of the inhabi- 
tants of Britain. The greatest quantity of wheat 
ever imported into Britain from the United States 
of America, in one year, bore to the whole annual 
consumption of that grain by the British people, 
only the proportion oi one to forty-seven and a half, 

I 



58 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

It did not amount to three hundred thousand quar- 
ters. And the proportion of wheat imported from 
Poland and from some of the grain-bearii^g dis- 
tricts of Germany, into Britain, in comparison of 
the whole yearly British consumption, is still less. 



CHAPTER. VI. 

The testimony of Mr. Comber, p. 274, and of 
Mr. M*Arthur, p. 214, 236, 267, is also conclu- 
sive as to the very important fact of the present 
state of the British poor being in every respect, of 
food, clothing, lodging, and other necessaries and 
comforts, considerably better than at any former 
period of time, and far superior to the condition 
of the lower orders of society in every other coun- 
try in Europe. And yet a strange notion per- 
vades almost all the people of the United States, 
" that the great mass of the inhabitants of Britain 
are ground down by the weight of taxation, and 
the universal distress in all classes of the communi- 
ty, to the lowest possible state of human misery, 
want, nakedness, and degradation." 

There are some circumstances, arising from the 
very rapidity of the progress of improvement in 
Britain, which have contributed to increase the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 59 

number of dependants upon the community for 
support. 

Independently of casual cessations of demand 
for particular species of industry, by which num- 
bers may be deprived of employment, many of the 
improvements in different branches of British mat 
nufactures, being substitutions of mechanical pow- 
ers for mere human force, have a tendency to di- 
minish the value of that labor which is not accom- 
panied with skill. That kind of labor, indeed, in 
the exercise of which skill is necessary, and which 
cannot be supplanted by capital, rises in value ^ 
but numbers, either from age, or natural inapti- 
tude, are left behind in the race of industrious 
competition, and have no other resource than in 
the voluntary charity or the legal allowance of the 
community at large. 

Such an effect is said to be avoided in China, by 
uniformly giving the preference to the manual la- 
bor of man, over that both of other animals, and 
of machines. But in addition to limiting the pro- 
ductive powers of a country by such an absurd 
and senseless custom, the reward of human labor 
itself, at length, becomes so small, in consequence 
of the vast and continually increasing number of 
laboring competitors, as to afford a very beggarly 
and miserable subsistence to the great body of the 
people. 

The effects arising from these substitutions for 
human labor, are, however, counteracted, as to 



60 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

the great body of the laborincj orders in Britain, 
by the more liberal remuneration of labor, by the 
more rapid increase of the annual produce of the 
country, and the reciprocity of demand among 
the employers and the laborers, which results from 
'the general affluence. 

In addition to the numbers thus thrown on the 
community, the various accidents and misfor- 
tunes, to which all human beings are liable, may 
interrupt the exertions of industry, and, in conse- 
quence, cut off the means of subsistence. These 
unfortunate persons are not confined to the labo- 
rious classes alone ; but many who may have pos- 
sessed some previous accumulation of capital, 
and omitted to acquire any species of useful in- 
dustry, if deprived, by vice or misfortune, of this 
support, sink'into the same class. 

In addition to these, there are many, who, from 
natural indolence, cannot be goaded to exertion ; 
and others, who, from neglected education, and 
vicious habits early imbibed, are rendered unwor- 
thy of trust ; besides, the whole of the vagrant, 
and mendicant tribes, who formerly existed by 
theft, or precarious benevolence, are now, by the 
vigilance of the police, confined to their own pa- 
rishes, thus augmenting the amount of the poor- 
rates, without increasing tiie number of the 
poor. 

Yet, notwithstanding this combination of causes, 
the proportion of British poor is not greater, at 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 61 

present, than it has been at any former period. In 
the time of Henry the eighth, the legislature itself 
acknowledged, that many of the lower orders of 
the English died from absolute want, in times, re- 
markable for the regularity of the seasons. And, 
in the reign of Elizabeth, almost every parish fur- 
nished three or four hundred vagrants. 

Even in the reign of Charles the second, when 
industry began to take root in Britain, the poor- 
rates amounted to £ 665,000, and were probably 
still higher at the Revolution, at which time, accor- 
ding to Gregory King, the cottagers, paupers and 
vagrants amounted to one million three hundred 
and thirty thousand ; amongst whom neither labor- 
ers, nor out-servants were included; and these 
two last-mentioned classes were numbered at one 
million two hundred and seventy-five thousand. 
The former class, therefore, may be considered as 
of the same description with those, who now re- 
ceive alms, in the shape of poor-rates ; and compo- 
sed nearly one-fourth of the whole population of 
England, which was then estimated at five millions 
five hundred thousand. According to Mr. Play- 
fair's Statistical Tables, the number of English poor 
receiving relief in the year 1804, amounted to 
nine hundred thousand ; less than one-tenth of the 
present population of England. 

This statement, therefore, exhibits a considera- 
ble decrease in the number of persons in a state of 
mendicity and poverty, in England, in proportion 



6a HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

to the population, since the Revolution in the 
year 1688 ; notwithstanding the increase of the 
poor-rates, nominally; that is to say, in the amount 
of the sums annually expended, owing to the ne- 
cessary depreciation of the value of money, in con- 
sequence of the vast and continual influx of wealth 
into Britain. And the superior manner, in which 
the British poor are fed, clothed, and lodged, in 
comparison with the condition of their ancestors 
in these respects, indicates no decline in the 
means of subsistence for the lower orders of the 
people in Britain. 

Those authors, who have given such exaggera- 
ted statements of the misery of the laboring clas- 
ses of the British community, in the present age, 
never once compare their condition, either with 
that of the same cliisses of society in the former 
periods of British history ; or Vv^ith that of the same 
classes of society, at present existing in any oth- 
er part of the world ; but with some ideal standard 
founded on a preconceived theory, not only un- 
warranted, but actually contradicted by the whole 
current of human experience, a theory which they 
have engendered in their own moon-struck brains, 
and which excludes the existence of indolence, ig- 
norance, d.ulness, vice, and misfortune in the 
world. Or, instead of considering these unfortu- 
nate circumstances, as the necessary concomitants 
of human nature, these ingenious politicians refer 
their origin to some derangement in the order of 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 63 

civilized society, to some radical defect in the 
constitution of all the governments upon earth; 
or to some other assumed principle, equally un- 
real, and equally inconsistent with itself. 

If brought to the test of comparison and expe- 
rience, it will be found that the condition of the 
lower orders of the people in Britain, at present, 
is superior, in the essential articles of food ; cloth- 
ing, and lodging, to that of the same class of soci- 
ety, in any other of the countries of Europe; and 
also, to that of the same class in Britain, at any 
former period of her history. 

A decisive proof of this assertion is the small 
proportion of annual deaths in Britain. These 
are stated by Mr. Mai thus to be only one in forty. 
In 1780, the proportion was one in thirty-six; so 
that there has been an improved healthiness in 
the country of ten per cent, in a period of less thari 
thirty years; which, as the lower orders form so 
large a majority of the whole population, demon- 
strates a very great melioration in their condition 
and general happiness. 

That a certain number of the members of a 
community become dependant upon that commu- 
nity for support, arises partly from the causes 
above-mentioned ; and partly from the natural and 
characteristic improvidence of that class of peo- 
ple, whose activity is, in a great measure, stifled 
by poverty and ignorance. 

This improvidence, no doubt, is greatly incre^- 



64 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

sed by the miserable system of poor-laws in En- 
gland, which at all times promises a certainty of 
relief to idleness, Scotland and Ireland are not, 
as yet, cursed with the English method of provi- 
ding for the poor; and, it is devoutly to be hoped, 
that they never will. 

After the flood of light poured upon this subject 
by that distinguished political phihsopher, Mr. 
Malthus in his invaluable Essay on Population ; 
it would seem superfluous to offer any remarks 
upon the evil tendencies of the English poor- 
laws; but as many politicians in the United States 
affect to deride all the great and important prin- 
ciples laid down by Mr, Malthus, as absurd and 
visionary, merely because they perceive that, in 
this country, six millions of human beings are not 
a redundant population, when spread out upon a 
superficies of territory, extending two millions of 
square miles ; I shall very briefly notice the fun- 
damental political blunder, on which the poor 
laws of England rest. 

These poor-laws have now, for more than two 
hundred years past, been proclaiming in the loud- 
est, and most intelligible language, their own per- 
nicious tendencies to cut up by the roots all the 
active industry of the laboring orders of the com- 
munity. 1 pass over the various acts of the En- 
glish Parliament, relating to this subject, made 
in the times of Henry the seventh, Henry the 
eighth, Edward the sixth, and Philip and Mary; 



Bankruptcy of Britain, &c. Q3 

and shall only notice that made in the reign of Eli- 
zabeth. 

The 43d Eliz. c. 2, s. 1, ordains, that the over- 
seers of each parish, shall find materials and work 
for the children of all those who cannot main- 
tain their own offspring ; and also, for all per- 
sons, married or unmarried, having no money 
to maintain them, and using no ordinary or 
daily trade by which to get their living; and also 
to find food and raiment for all the impotent poor, 
who cannot find it for themselves. 

But, surely, this statute cannot effect impossibi- 
lities ; an English act of Parliament can never work 
a miracle. The position is now for ever settled by 
Mr. Mahhus, who draws his proofs from the ob- 
servation and the recorded experience of all ages, 
that the principle of population always outruns 
the means of subsistence ; that man has a power 
of multiplying his species far surpassing in rapi-* 
dity and force the capacity of the earth to produce 
food J that population increases in a geometrical, - 
while the means of subsistence increase only in an 
arithmetical ratio. 

It is also manifest, that the mass of population 
in any given country, must always be measu- 
red and limited by the quantity of food in that 
country ; for, where there are no means of 
subsistence, people must die. And yet the sta- 
tute of Elizabeth requires, that work, materials, 
and food shall be provided for all the poor that 

K 



66 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

want these things. As if the overseers of an Eng^ 
lisb parish could create work and materials where 
there was no effectual demand for them j or could 
manufacture food when it did not exist in the 
kingdom. 

What is this but holding up a high bounty for 
the production of a greater population than the 
country can actually maintain; whence the conse- 
quent increase of the bills of mortality, by penu- 
ry, disease, and all the complicated miseries of 
famine ? The English poor are thus prevented from 
being taught this most important truth; that no in- 
dividual human being, who cannot maintain a 
wife and family, has any business with them ; has 
any right to entail them as additional incumbran- 
ces on the community ; whence, without the least 
exercise of reflection or calculation, they proceed 
to augment the mass of beggarly population, to 
an extent far beyond that which the country can 
properly support ; far beyond the power of the 
land to produce the full means of subsistence for 
them, because the Legislature has told them, that 
they may produce any number of unnecessary 
and superfluous children they please, and the pa- 
rish shall be compelled to provide them with food 
and covering. 

Depopulation, says Lord Kames, in his Sketches 
of the History of Man, vol. 3. p. 76, 107 — in- 
equality in the price of labor, and extravagant 
wages are deplorable evils. But the English poor- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 6f 

laws are productive of evils still more deplora- 
ble: they are subversive both of morality and in- 
dustry. 

Fear of want is the only effectual motive to in- 
dustry with the laboring poor ; remove that fear, 
and they cease to be industrious. The ruling pas- 
sion of those who live by bodily labor, is, to save 
a pittance for their children, and for supporting 
themselves in their old age : stimulated by the de- 
sire of accomplishing these ends, they are frugal 
and industrious, and the prospect of success is 
to them a continual feast. 

Now, what worse can malice invent against such 
a man, under color of friendship, than to secure 
bread to him and to his children, whenever he takes 
a dislike to workj which effectually deadens his 
sole ambition, and with it, his honest industry ? 
Relying on the certainty of a provision against 
want, he relaxes gradually till he sinks into idle- 
ness; idleness leads to profligacy; profligacy be- 
gets diseases ; and the wretch becomes an object 
o^ public charity before he has run half his course. 

Such are the genuine effects of the English tax 
for the poor, under a mistaken notion of charity. 
There never was known in any country ;a scheme 
for the poor more contradictory to sound policy. 
Might it not have been foreseen, that to a grovel- 
ing creature, who has no sense of honor, and scarce- 
ly any of shame, the certainty of maintenance would 



68 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

prove an irresistible temptation to idleness and de- 
bauchery ? 

Wisely, therefore, is it ordered by Providence, 
that charity should, in every instance, be volunta- 
ry ; to prevent the idle and profligate from de- 
|>ending upon it for support. I am indeed aware, 
that during the reign of Elizabeth, some legal 
compulsion on the public might be necessary to 
preserve the English poor from starving. Her fa- 
ther, Henry the eighth, had sequestered all the 
hospitals, a hundred and ten in number, and squan- 
dered their revenues; he had also demolished all 
the abbeys. H^y these means the poor of England 
were reduced to a miserable condition ; especially 
as private charity, from want of exercise, was at a 
low ebb. 

That critical juncture required help from the 
Legislature -, and a temporary provision for the 
poor would have been a proper measure ; so con- 
trived as not to supersede, but rather to promote 
voluntary charity. Unlucky is it for England, that 
such a measure was overlooked ; but Queen Eliza- 
beth and her Parliaments had not the talent of 
foreseeing consequences without the aid of expe- 
rience. A perpetual tax, the most pernicious ever 
imposed in any country, was therefore laid on for 
the provision of the poor. 

Yet, notwithstanding the existence of this great 
national curse in England, it is obvious to every 
?Ripartial observer, that the proportion which the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 69 

industrious classes in Britain at present obtain of 
the whole annual produce of the community, is 
much larger than that which they enjoyed previous 
to the improvements that have, within these last 
thirty years, been produced in the country by the 
progress of commerce, and the consequent diffu- 
sion of knowledge ; and their condition is become 
both positively and relatively improved. 

For it is a general maxim, admitting but iew 
exceptions, that every nation, taken collectively, 
is happy in proportion to its industry ; and the 
number of the industrious classes in a commercial 
state is in general the greater proportion to the 
vi^hole number J but in Britain these classes are 
more numerous in proportion to the whole popu- 
lation, than in any other state in Europe, and than 
they ever were in any former period of the British 
history. 

The resources of Britain are chiefly derived from 
the labor and industry of its inhabitants. The ac- 
tive classes are the principal sinews of a nation in 
peace and war j and in no country in the world is 
more attention paid (with the exception of the En- 
glish poor-tax) to their comforts and happiness 
than in Britain. In France, Germany, Spain, Por- 
tugal, and Italy, there have always been less labor 
and industry, and, consequently, a greater propor- 
tion of wretchedness, than in the British isles. 

It is a notorious fact, that within the last thirty 
years, the number of industrious or laboring clas- 



"70 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

ses of the Gommunity in Britain has increased in a 
greater proportion than have the other classes, 
which constitute the remainder of the British po- 
pulation. The number in the middle and higher 
classes forms a very small proportion to the whole 
number of the laboring and industrious portion of 
the community ; and as labor is much better paid 
in Britain than elsewhere in Europe, it may be 
fairly inferred that the British enjoy a greater de- 
gree of national happiness than any other Euro* 
pean people. 

In most of the states of Europe asylums are pro* 
vided for the poor ; but in no country so liberally 
as in Britain. The money annually destined to 
the alleviation of the distresses of the English poor 
alone, exceeds twelve millions of pounds sterling. 
This sum includes the relief of the various objects of 
charity, parochial and private, voluntary contribu- 
tions, asylums, hospitals, charity-schools, &c. &c. 

And, although the depraved morals of the En- 
glish poor, in the present, compared with those of 
former ages, are the constant theme of vulgar de- 
clamation J yet, if we recur to historical fact;^, we 
shall find the charge to be as false as it is common. 
In the sixteenth century, during the reign of 
Henry the eighth, a period of thirty-six years, 
seventy-two thousand thieves and rogues, besides 
other malefactors, were hanged in England ; ma- 
king, on an average, about two thousand offenders 
executed each year during this monarch's reign. 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 71 

In Queen Elizabeth's reign, between three and 
four hundred malefactors were hanged each year, 
for theft and robbery. But in the present reign, 
upon an average, not more than fifty each year 
have been hanged for these crimes, in all the British 
isles ; yet the population of all Britain is now 
more than quadruple that which England posses- 
sed in Elizabeth's time. And in no country un- 
der the cope of Heaven, are the laws, as they are 
now administered, more mild and well-defined i in 
no country are the judges of the tribunals more in- 
dependent and upright than in Britain. 

I would just notice, that great pains are taken, 
by certain politicians in this country, to induce 
their more uninformed brethren to believe that the 
people in Britain are continually harassed with 
criminal prosecutions for a vast variety of species 
y6f treason ; and that capital punishments are mul- 
tiplied there beyond all example in the history of 
the world ; but the notorious fact is that criminal 
prosecutions and capital punishments have be- 
come extremely rare of late years in Britain, in 
comparison with the former periods of her history, 
and with the practice ancient and modern of ali 
the other countries in Europe. 

Americans would more consult their reputation 
for prudence if they were to talk less of the " odi- 
ous examples of frequent executions for treason" 
in Bni3L'\n previous to the reign of her present mon- 
arch ; because all those laws and all those execu- 



72 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

tions existed when the ancestors of the present na- 
tives of the United States boasted of their attach- 
ment to the British Crown, and demanded no 
greater happiness than to have the unimpaired pri- 
vileges of British subjects under British law. 

All that I mean to prove is, that at present the 
condition of the people in Britain is far better in 
every respect than is perpetually represented by 
men in this country, who ought not be uninform- 
ed upon this subject, and who betray the weak- 
ness of their cause by incessantly pointing the bat- 
tery of their abuse against the earlier and ruder 
ages of the British government. As for those im- 
ported traitors who in this country assume the 
name of patriots, and measure their excellence by 
the frantic zeal with which they revile the people, 
the. government, the laws, the morals, and the re- 
ligion of Britain, I shall only say, in the words of 
an acute Scottishman — " It is no new thing under 
the sun for rogues to be afraid of the gallows." 



CHAPTER VII. 



The mines of tin, copper, iron, &c. and the fishe- 
ries of the British empire, add greatly to her pro- 
ductive industry and wealth ; but for want of suf- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 7S 

ficient documents, I am unable to state their pre- 
cise value. 

Yet one circumstance, which confers upon Bri- 
tain wide and ^mple sources of national wealth and 
prosperity, and in which she far surpasses all the 
other nations of Europe, must not pass entirely 
without notice. I mean the full supply of subter- 
ranean fuel within her own territorial boundaries^ 
which at once enables her to administer to the 
comfort of her people, and to carry on her sys- 
tem of manufactures to an extent, and with a suc- 
cess, unparralleled in the history of the world. 

On the continent of Europe, wood is chiefly 
used for fuel, to the great inconvenience and de- 
triment of its inhabitants ; who are by this, as well 
as other circumstances, prevented from establish- 
ing and keeping up large and extensive manufac- 
tories, owing to the difficulty of conveying this 
kind of fuel to any given spot, after the neigh- 
boring forests have been once cleared away. 

In Britain, wood for fuel cannot be furnished 
in any great quantities ; its supply being alto- 
gether impracticable, owing to tlie comparatively 
small proportion of wood-land, the vast popula- 
tion, and the high state of agriculture in the coun- 
try. Her inexhaustible coal mines, however, more 
than supply her want of wood, and give her a na- 
tional superiority as to an easily acquired, and 
cheap article of fuel, an effectual mode of breed- 
ing a vast body of hardy and dexterous seamen 

J. 



74 ttlNTS ON THE NATIONAL 

and a sure source of extending her manufactures 
and commerce; which no other country on the 
globe at present possesses. 

The immense and continually increasing na- 
tional wealth of Britain, and her consequent abi- 
licy to bear her present burden of taxation, with- 
out incurring that universal bankruptcy and ruinj 
which the French politicians, and their partisans, 
all over the world, loudly predict, and incessantl}'- 
des're, will appear from the following facts, stated 
by Mr. M'Arthur, beginning at page 46th of his 
valuable and important work: 

" From all the foregoing results, as to the state 
of British Agriculture, Manufactures, and Com- 
merce, obvious to every one conversant with the 
common rules of arithmetic, and disposed to make 
the calculation, it is manifest, that the wealth and 
resources of Britain, in this essential point of view, 
have been progressively increasing, during the 
last century, in a greater ratio than her taxes. 
And from the above-mentioned causes, as well as 
the effects resulting from the comparative value 
of labor, provisions, improvements in agriculture, 
and manufactures, the subjects of the British em- 
pire, with a very i^w exceptions, feel less, at this 
moment, the various burdens imposed upon them, 
than did their predecessors at the beginning of 
the eighteenth century." 

If any doubt, as to the truth of this assertion, yet 
remain, perhaps it will be removed by a perusal 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 



of the following tables, exhibiting the public reve- 
nue and expenditure of Britain, during the last 
century, computed on a medium of ever}' seven 
years, together with the supplies, and ways and 
means ; and also the official (which is above sevenhj 
per cent, below the real^ value of British imports 
and exports ; and the balance of trade for every 
year of the eighteenth century. 

State of the public revenue from the year 1700 
to 1800 inclusive, computed on the medium of 
every seven years; and also the amount of Loans 
for the same period. 



YEARS. 


HEADS OF ORDINARY 


Annual me- 


AMOUNT OF 




REVENUE. 


dium of se- 
ven years. 


LOANS. 


r 


Annual average amount 
of customs, excise, stamps. 






iroo 


land-tax, miscellaneous tax- 






to < 


es, including salt, post-office. 






1707 


8cc. for seven years, from 




, 




Michaelmas 1700 to Mi- 


£ 


£ . 


>- 


chaelmas 1707, inclusive. 
Annual average amount 


5,011,770 


24,952,545 




of do. to 1714, 


4,419,111 


34,900,609 




Do. do. to 1721, 


5,629,004 


00,000,000 




Do. do. to 1728, 


5,059,000 


2,832,093 




Do. do. to 1735, 


5,224,961 


1,800,000 




Do. do. to 1742, 


5,911,128 


2,600,000 




Do. do. to 1749, 


, 6,290,422 


22,302,472 




Do. do. to 1756, 


6,481,946 


6,100,000 




Do. do. to 1763, 


7,540,055 


7,313,553 




Do. do. to 1770, 


9,314,285 


4,900,000 




Do. do. to 1777, 


10,395,687 


7,000,000 




Do. do. to 1784, 


12,013,747 


68,500,000 




Do. do. to 1791, 


15,732,561 


1,002,500 




Do. do. to 1798, 


21,434,000 


100,500,000 




Do. do. to 1799, 


34,707,906 


18,000,000 




Do. do. to 1800, 


36,728,000 


20,500,000 



76 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

The amount of the permanent and temporary 
taxes in Britain, for the year 1800, was estima- 
ted at £ 36,728,000, namely, 

The gross receipt of the permanent Revenue, 
after deducting repayments for over-entries, draw- 
backs, and bounties, amounted in the year, ending 
the 5th of July, 1800, to £ 28,238,000 

The tax on income, estimated at 7,000,000 

Tax on imports and exports 1,250,000, 

Expected additional produce of taxes 

for 1800 240,000 



Total i: 36,728,000 



By adding the loans, sums raised by lottery, 
and other extraordinary resources, to the ordina- 
ry revenue, the public income of Britain is ascer- 
tained. 

General view of the public expenditure in Bri- 
tain from the year 1700 to 1800 inclusive; compu- 
ted on the medium of every seven years, with the 
particular amounts of the two last years of the 
century : 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 77 

The average per annum, of ex- ^"''jSe^Sr*' 

penditure, army, navy, civil list, 

ordnance, miscellaneous service, 

interest of debts, &c. from 1700 

to 1707, inclusive, 0^5,765,173 

To 1714 10,087,079 

1721 6,283,048 

1728 11,715,455 

1735 . 6,215,310 

1742 9,151,422 

1749 9,910,433 

1756 6,900,477 

1763 17,885,328 

1770 13,139,600 

1777 14,117,9y2 

1784 21,210,308 

1791 o 13,181,326 

1798 30,440,398 

Sum of mediums .... <£ 176,003,440 

Which multiplied by 7, gives the 7 
total amount of British public 

expenditure from 1700 to — 

1798, inclusive, .... ^1,232,024,080 

1799. Amount of expenditure 
for one year, tooth of Janu- 
ary, 1800, £5^,566,306 

1800. Do. for the year 1800, . . 64,438,427 

Total British public expendi- 
ture for one hundred years, . £ 1,351,028,813 



78 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

The heads of public expenditure in Britain, for 
the year 1800, were interest of public funded debt, 
charges of management, and sinking fund, after 
deducting interest payable by Ireland,! 9,307,000 
Interest on Stock created by Loans, 962,000 

Do. on Exchequer-bills, 1,021,626 

The Civil List, 898,000 

Other charges on Consolidated 

Funds, 239,297 

Civil government of Scotland, pen- 
sions on hereditary revenue, militia 
and deserters' warrants, bounties, 

&c 647,183 

Charges of management of the Reve- 
nue, 1,779,769 



Total ... £ 24,854,8 7i 
Supplies voted for the year 1800, in- 
cluding advance to Ireland, vote of 
credit for probable contingencies, 
and interest for Imperial Loan, . 39,583,552 

Total expenditure for 1800, £ 64,438,427 

The following table exhibits the official value of 
imports and exports, and apparent balance of trade, 
distinguishing the ofticial value of West India im- 
ports into Britain; for upwards of 100 years. 

N. B. The rates of value in the office of the 
British Inspector General were established in the 
year 1697; and as no alterations have since taken 
place, i^lthough the money-prices in the market 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &e. 



79 



have been progressively rising, the real now ex- 
ceeds the official value of British imports and ex- 
ports, in the pro]iortion of one hundred and seven- 
ty-one to one hundred ; that is to say, by sevenhj- 
one per cent. 



Periods, 


Years 


Imports. 


Exports. 


Balance. 


West-India im- 
ports. 






£ 


£ 


£ 


£ 




rl697 
1698 


3,482,586 
4,732,360 


3,525,906 


43,320 






6,522,104 


1,789,844 


629,533 


Peace. < 


1699 


5,707,669 


6,788,166 


1,080,497 


586,255 




1700 


5,970,175 


7,302,716 


1,332,54 1 


824,245 




1701 
'1702 


5,869,606 


7,621,053 


1,751,447 


738,601 




4,159,304 


5,235,874 


1,076,570 


476,168 




1703 


4,526,596 


6,644,103 


2,117,507 


626,488 




1704 


5,383,200 


6,552,019 


1,169^19 


489,906 




1705 


4,031,649 


5,501,677 


1,470,028 


706,574 




1706 


4,113,933 


6,512,086 


2,398,153 


537,744 


IVar. ^ 


1707 


4,274,055 


6,767,178 


2,493,123 


604,889 


1708 


4,698,663 


6,969,098 


2,270,426 


592,750 




1709 


4,510,593 


6,627,045 


2,116,452 


645,689 




1710 


4,011,341 


6,690,828 


2,679,487 


780,505 




1711 


4,685,785 


6,447,170 


1,761,385 


556,198 




..1712 


4.454,682 


7,468,857 


3,014,175 


648,190 




"1713 


5,811,077 


7,352,655 


1,541,578 


762,248 




1714 


5,929,227 


8,361,638 


2,432,411 


843,390 


Peace. < 


1715 


5,640,943 


7,379,409 


1,738,466 


999,412 




1716 


5,800,258 


7,614,085 


1,813,827 


1,104,188 




..1717 


6,346,768 


9,147,700 


2,800,932 


1,204,057 




"1718 


6,669,390 


8,255,302 


1,585,912 


896,031 


War. < 


1719 


5,267,499 


7,709,528 


2,342,079 


875,358 




1720 


6,090,083 


7,936,728 


1,846,645 


1,117,576 




^1721 


5,768,510 


8,581,200 


2,912,790 


852,529 




'1722 


6,378,098 


9,650,789 


3,272,691 


1,015,617 




1723 


6,505,676 


9,489,811 


2,984,135 


1,087,254 




1724 


7,394,405 


9,143,356 


1,748,951 


1,160,568 


Peace. < 


1725 


7,094,708 


11,325,480 


4,230,772 


1,359,18.-. 




1726 


6,677,865 


9,406,731 


2,728,866 


1,222,511 




1727 


6,798,908 


9,553,043 


2,854,135 


1,039,513 




1728 


7,569,299 


11,631.38-1 


4,063,084 


1,498.02.'] 



SOT 



HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 



Periods, 


Years 


Imports. 


Exports. 


Balance. 


West- India im- 
ports. 




£ 


£ 


£ 


£ 




rl729 


7,540,620 


11,475,771 


3,935,151 


1,515,451 




1730 


7,780,019 


11,974,135 


4,194,116 


1,571,608 




1731 


6,991,500 


11,167,380 


4,175,880 


1,310,580 




1732 


7,087,914 


11,786,658 


4,698,744 


1,315,458 


Peace. < 


1733 


8,016,814 


11,777,306 


3,760,492 


1,618,013 


1734 


7,095,861 


11,000,645 


3,904,784 


1,141,068 




1735 


8,160,184 


13,544,144 


5,383,960 


1,460,609 




1736 


7,307,966 


11,616,356 


4,308,390 


1,423,039 




1737 


7,073,638 


11,842,320 


4,762,682 


946,423 




^1738 


7,438,960 


12,289,495 


4,850,535 


1,475,610 




''1739 


7,829,373 


9,495,366 


1,665,993 


1,566,838 




1740 


6,703,778 


8,869,939 


2,166,161 


1,185,107 




1741 


7,936,084 


11,469,872 


3,533,788 


1,402,986 




1742 


6,866,864 


11,584,427 


4,717,563 


1,309,886 


War. < 


1743 


7,802,353 


14,623,653 


6,821,300 


1,404,510 


1744 


6,362,971 


11,429,628 


5,066,657 


1,156,952 




1745 


7,847,123 


10,497,329 


2,650,206 


1,024,097 




1746 


6,205,687 


11,360,792 


5,155,105 


1,148,124 




1747 
^1748 


7,116,757 


11,442,049 


5,325,292 


941,116 




8,136,408 


12,351,432 


4,215,024 


1,615,122 




'1749 


7,917,804 


14,099,366 


6,181,562 


1,478,075 




1750 


7,772,039 


15,132,004 


7,359,965 


1,514,452 




1761 


7,943,436 


13,967,811 


6,024,375 


1,444,775 


Peace. < 


1752 


7,889,369 


13,221,116 


5,331,747 


1,428,824 


, 


1753 


8,625,029 


14,264,614 


5,639,585 


1,838, 13r 




1754 


8,093,472 


13,396,853 


5,o0o,38 1 


1,462,601 




1755 


9,238,276 


12,717,832 


3,479,556 


1,867,256 




'1756 


8,442,027 


13,143,689 


4,701,662 


1,687,177 




1757 


9,873,153 


14,266,861 


4,393,708 


1,906,147 




1758 


9,074,190 


15,866,251 


6,792,061 


1,858,425 


[l^ti r -> 


1759 


9,528,864 


15,637,696 


6,108,832 


1,833,646 


i r u 1 . "^ 


1760 


10,683,595 


16,665,278 


5,981,683 


1,861,668 




1761 


10,292,541 


17,531,675 


7,239,134 


1,953,622 




1762 


9,579,160 


15,132,258 


5,553,098 


1,762,406 




^1763 


12,568,927 


17,251,617 


4,682,690 


2,254,231 




'1764 


11,250,660 


17,756,331 


6,505,671 


2,391,552 




1765 


11,812,144 


15,721,374 


8,909,230 


2,196,549 


Peac(. < 


1766 


12,456,764 


15,188,668 


2,731,904 


2,704,114 




1767 


13,097,153 


15,090,001 


1,992,848 


2,690,673 




^1768 


13,115,309 


16.620,132 


3,504,823 


2,942,717 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 



Periods. 



Peac 



Years 



War. 



<> 



1769 
1770 
1771 
1772 
1773 
1774 
1775 
1776 
1777 
1778 
1779 
1780 
1781 
1782 
1783 
J5l784 
1785 
1786 
178 



Imports. 



£ 

13,134,090 
13,430,298 
14,218,324 
14,508,715 
12,522,643 
14,549,914 
14,815,855 
12,443,429 
12,643,833 
10,975,533 
11,435,264 
11,664,967 
12,722,862 
10,341,62^ 
13,122,235 
15,272,672 
16,279,418 
15,786,072 
17,804,024 



Peace. <^ 



tVa 



1788 18,027,170 

1789 17,821,202 

1790 19,130,596 

1791 19,600,000 
1792119,128,585 
1793ll9,256,000 
1794;22,288,000 
1795|22,736,000 
1796123,187,000 
1797i2 1,013,000 
1798|29,275,760 
1799i26,837,432 

|^1800l29,945,808 



Exports. 



£ 

14,401,289 

15,994,571 

19,018,480 

17,720,168 

16,375,430 

17,288,486 

16,326,363 

14,755,698 

13,491,006 

12,253,890 

13,530,702 

13,554,093 

11,332,295 

13,009,458 

14,681,494 

15,101,276 

16,770,228 

16,300,725 

18,296,166 

18,124,082 

20,014,298 

20,120,120 

22,731,994 

24,905,200 

0,390,000 

26,734,000 

27,312,000 

30,518,000 

28,917,000 

33,591,777 

35,991,392 

35,990,000 



Balance. 

£ 
1,267,199 
2,564,273 
4,800,156 
3,21 1,453 
3,852,787 
2,738,572 
1,510,508 
2,312,269 
847,173 
1,278,357 
2,095,438 
1,889,126 



2,657,830 
1,559,259 

490,810 

514,653 

492,142 

96,912 

2,193,096 

989,524 

3,131,994 

5,776,615 

1,134,000 

4,446,000 

4,576,000 

7,331,000 

7,904,000 

6,316,017 

9,153,960 

6,044,192 



West-India na- 

poits. 

£ 
2,686,714. 
2,110,026 
2,979,378 
3,538,082 
2,902,407 
3,574,702 
3,688,795 
3,340,949 
2,840,302 
3,059,922 
2,836,489 
2,612,236 
2,023,546 
2,612,910 
2,820,3875 
3,531,705 
4,400,956 
3,484,025 
3,758,087 
4,307,866 
3,917,301 
3,854,204 
3,65 1,61 1 
4,128,047 
4,339,613 
5,294,742 
4,645,972 
4,541,217 
5,173,069 
6,390,658 
7,456,983 
8,136,453 



In the year 1781, tlie imports of Britain exceed- 
ed her exports by £ 1,390,567.; and in the year 
1784, by £ 171,396. In the year 1781, a great 
part of the capital of the British merchants was 



M 



82 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

suddenly withdrawn from trade, owing to the 
great speculations, and vast losses, of some notori- 
ous individuals, which for a time impaired that 
mutual confidence, which is the very life's blood 
of all commerce. The greatest apparent balance 
of trade, in favor of Britain, in the eighteenth cen- 
tury, during peace, was in the year 17-50, amoun- 
ting to £> 7,359,965 ; and the greatest balance du- 
ring war, arose in the year 1799 amounting to 
£ 9,153,960. 

By a reference to Sir William Young*s com- 
mon-place book, p. 86, 87, 88, we shall find that 
the annual value of the imports from the British 
West-Indies into the mother-country, at present, 
amounts, on an average, to seventeen millions 
sterling ; of which sum five millions yearly are 
paid into the public treasury, namely, the duty 
on sugar three millions; on rum, one million five 
hundred thousand pounds ; and on the lesser 
commodities, five hundred thousand pounds. Of 
the remaining twelve millions, eight go in pay- 
ment of the British manufactures exported ; while 
the other four millions are appropriated to the 
homeward freight and the mercantde charges. 
See Mr. Lowe's Inquiry into the State of the British 
West-Indies, p. 12, published in London, in the 
year 1807. 



Bankruptcy of Britain, &e. 



83 



An account of the British Supplies and Ways 
and Means, during the eighteenth century. 



Periods. 



Peace, 



War. 



Peace the 
WthofA- 
pril, 1713. 



War with 
Spain. 



Peace June! {P*? 
1721 I Z^^^ 



1725 
1 1726 




£ 
2,886,536 
4,380,045 
3,535,457 
4,005,369 
4,717,488 
5,075,761 
5,941,841 
5,926,849 

6,425,268 
14,370,744 

3,520,072 
3,062,379 
3,282,223 
2,053,363 
3,697,767 
2,644,437 
2,989,109 
2,623,537 
2,738,156 
2,923,108 
1,935,054 
1,863,888 
1,823,229 
2,978,954 
2,895,305 



I 



Annnal Ways 
and Means. 



£ 
2,620,000 
6,913,628 
3,887,630 
4,200,000 
4,914,888 
5,282,232 
6,142,381 
6,189,067 
6,868,839 
6,895,552 
1 6,246,325 
6,304,615 
3,400,000 
3,100,000 

7,317,751 

3,211,313 
2,229,514 
2,735,509 
2,742,000 
2,920,264 
2,719,412 
1,837,799 
1,730,744 
1,782,212 
3,282,328 
3,175,287 



HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 



Periods. 


Years. 


Annual Sup- 


Annual Ways 






plies. 


and Means. 






£ 


£ 




ri727 


5,392,966 


5,544,594 




1728 


3,224,699 


3,540,478 




1729 


3,345,190 


3,530,766 




1730 


2,752,833 


3,826,825 




1731 


2,784,705 


2,883,180 


Peace. -< 


1732 


3,004,926 


2,887,943 


1733 


3,870,230 


3,989,689 




1734 


3,150,452 


3,269,000 




1735 


3,225,903 


3,380,565 




1736 


3,025,172 


3,269,000 




1737 


3,444,246 


3,769,000 


\ 


J 738 


2,633,328 


2,908,506 


War with 
Spain, \ 9th 
October, 
1759, and ^ 
withFrance 
15 th March 
11 U. 


^1739 
1740 
1741 


3,874,076 
5,017,651 
5,723,537 


4,097,831 
5,039,102 
6,188,065 


1742 
1743 


5,912,483 
6,283,537 


6,119,157 
6,624,065 


1744 
1745 


6,462,902 
' 7,088,353 


6,609,310 
7,303,065 


1746 


9,402,978 


9,400,574 




.1747 


10,059,104 


10,088,065 




^1748 


8,082,409 


8,018,007 


Peace, 7th 


1749 


4,014,136 


4,313,730 


October, 


1750 


4,969,365 


5,175,023 


1748. 


1751 


3,907,435 


4,178,459 


1752 


2,132,707 


2,422,911 




1753 


2,797,916 


3,077,897 




1754 


4,073,779 


4,256,909 




L1755 


7,2i9,ll7 


7,427,261 


War. 


ri756 


8,350,325 


'8,689,051 


■< 


1757 


10,486,447 


11,079,722 




{ 1758 


12,749,860 


12,991,240 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &a. 



a5 



Periods. 


Years. 


Annual Sup 


Annual Ways 






plies. 


and Means. 






£ 


£ 


War. \ 


-1759 


15,503,564 


16,130,561 


1760 


19,616,119 


19,953,922 


1 


1761 


18,299,153 


18,655,750 


( 


1762 


13,522,040 


14,199,375 




1763 


13,522,039 


14,199,373 




1764 


7,712,562 


7,759,574 




1765 


7,763,090 


7,783,068 




1766 


8,273,280 


8,558,824 




1767 


8,527,728 


8,753,256 


Peace. 


1768 


8,335,740 


8,754,626 


1769 


6,909,003 


7,208,312 




1770 


7.455,042 


7,794,224 




1771 


7,158,779 


7,639,782 




1772 


7,186,253 


7,222,593 




1773 


6,980,216 


7,539,360 




1774 


6,159,661 


6,546,108 




"1775 


6,559,246 


6,559,246 




1776 


9,097,577 


9,154,230 




1777 


12,895,543 


12,952,534 


War. < 


1778 


14,345,497 


14,378,567 


1779 


15,729,654 


15,729,915 




1780 


21,196,496 


21,382,249 




1781 


25,373,524 


Q5,353,S57 




1782 


24,261,477 


U,2U,373 




'1783 


19,788,863 


20,009,236 




1784 


11,988,174 


12,957,520 




1785 


9,736,868 


10,436,668 


Peace in 


1786 


13,420,962 


13,900,992 


1783. * 


1787 


12,414,579 


12,931,855 




1788 


11,860,263 


11,886,600 




1789 


11,293,036 


11,639,831 




1790 


11,931,201 


12,496,088 



86^ 



HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 



Periods. 


Years. 


Annual Sup- 


Annual Ways 






plies. 


and Means. 






£ 


£ 


Peace in 


ri791 


14,064,606 


14,881,634 


1792 


11,138,813 


11,503,995 




1793 


16,698,553 


16,157,436 




1794 


^20,228,119 


20,419,508 




1795 


29,307,265 


29,903,541 


IVar.^ 


1796 


37,588,502 


38,030,000 


1797 


44,781,262 


41,816,250 




1798 


35,028,798 


33,980,672 




1799 


44,782,923 


42,738,577 




. 1800 


39,500,000 


39,500,000 



Heads under which the Supplies and Ways and 
Means of the year 1799 were classed. 



Supplies. 

Navy, £ 13,654,013 

Army, 7,277,319 

Militia and Fencible Corps, . . 4,532,435 

Ordnance, 1,570,827 

Miscellaneous services, ... 6,105,310 

Reduction of national debt, . . 200,000 

Exchequer bills, 8,443,017 

Vote of credit, 3,000,000 



Total amount of Supplies 

for 1799 ... <£ 44,782,922 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 87 



IFai/s and Means for 1799. 

Annual grants of certain duties 

on sugar malt, tobacco, &c. . £ 2,750,000 
Extraordinary aids by loans, 18,500,000 

Exchequer bills, 17,000,000 

Surplus of consolidated fund 521,000 

Lottery . . • 703,541 

Further application out of the mo- 
nies of the surplus of consolida- 
ted fund, 3,229,000 

Remaining in the hands of the Pay- 
Master General of the Forces, 34,145 



Total amount of Ways and 

Means for 1799, - • .£42,738,577 

Supplies for the year 1800. 

Navy, ^13,619,079 

Army, 11,350,079 

Ordnance, 1, 695,958 

Miscellaneous services, . . . 750,000 

Interest due to the bank, . . 816,650 

Deficieucy of Ways and Means, 447,089 

To pay off exchequer bills, . . 2,906,250 
Do. aids and contributions, 1,079.730 

Do. supply .... 1,194,000 



88 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

Reduction ot national debt, £ 200,000 

Subsidies, ...,...., 3,000,000 



.£37,778,785 
For unforeseen services .... 1,771,215 



£ 39,500,000 



The following Table sbews that the increased re- 
venue of Britain, in the year 1799, arising from 
the amount of old and new taxes, annual profits on 
the land-tax then redeemed. East India participa- 
tion, and Lottery, would, exceed by ^ 1,330,000, 
the estimate of the annual expenditure of the Bri- 
tish peace establishment, as stated by the Select 
Committee on Finance, in the year 1791, as well as 
the amount of annual charges incurred during the 
war by loans and funding, and all the increased 
charges thereunto incident. 
Amount of old taxes in the year, 

ending 10th October, 1799, . £ 15,245,000 
Taxes imposed during the war, in- 
cluding £ 62,000 annual profit on 

land-tax, 8,301,000 

Land and malt-tax, East-India parti- 
cipation, and Lottery, .... 3,308,000 



Total, ....;<£ 26,854,000 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, SlC. 89 

Charges incurred during the war by 
loans and funding, also increased 
charges of the sinking and consoli- 
dated funds, £ 16,000,000 

Additional charges, in consequence 
of the augment«dpay, and provi- 
'^ions of the navy and army, &c. 9,524,001) 



Total, .... ^25,524,000 



Excess of income, jO 1,330,000 



CHAPTER. VIII. 

An unerring criterion of the wealth and prospe- 
rity of a nation is derived from the low rate of inter- 
est on money, and the increased value of land. 
In Britain, a hundred years since, the rate of inter- 
est was from eight to ten per cent, and landed pro- 
perty fetched a purchase-money of from fifteen to 
eighteen years. But now, the British government 
can borrow money at an interest of less than five 
per cent. Mr. Pitt, in the year 1800, raised a loan 
of eighteen and a half millions, at the rate of four 
and three quarters per cent, and landed property 

N 



90 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

in Britain is now sold at from twenty-eight to 
thirty years purchase. 

By a purchase-money of so many years I mean 
the annual rent of land multiplied by so many 
years ; for instance, a given landed estate produ- 
ces an annual rent of five hundred pounds ; if the 
purchase-money of this estate amount to ten years, 
it will be Worth five thousand pounds : if to twenty 
years it will be valued at ten thousand pounds, 
and so on. When the purchase-price of land is 
low it yields a large interest for the capital laid 
out ; and when the price is high the stock em- 
ployed yields a small return of interest. 

In the middle ages, when commerce was fettered 
and restrained throughout Europe, most exorbi- 
tant interest was demanded. In the fourteenth 
century, A. D. 1311, Philip the fourth fixed the 
interest which might be legally exacted in the fairs 
of Champaigne, at twenty per cent. James the 
first, of Scotland, A. D. 1242, fixed it by law at 
eighteen per cent. In the year 1490, the interest 
of money in Placentia was at fort}^ per cent, 
Lodovico Guicciardini says, that Charles the 
fifth of Germany fixed the rate of interest in his 
dominions in the Low Countries at twelve per 
cent, and at the time when Guicciardini wrote, 
about the year 1560, it was common to exact more 
than that smn. I'he high rate of interest on mo- 
ney is alone a proof, that the profits on commerce 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. . 9 i 

were exorbitant, and that trade was not carried on 
to any great extent. 

Lowness of interest, Mr. Hume remarks, pro- 
ceeds from three circumstances, namely, the small 
demand for borrowing; great riches to supply that 
demand; and small profits arising from commerce. 
These circumstances are all connected together, 
and proceed from the increase of industry and 
trade. Lowness of interest therefore raises the 
value of land; and the converse of this proposition 
is equally true ; namely, that a high rate of inter- 
est depresses the price of landed property. 

The mode in which the low rate of interest rai- 
ses the price of land, and conversely; and the cir- 
cumstances under which a low rate of interest, 
namely, in combination with the high price of land 
and the low profits of stock, is a conclusive proof 
of national prosperity; are thus explained by 
Doctor Smith, in his Wealth of Nations, 1st vol. p. 
66, 70, 129, and 2d vol. p. 122, and by Mr. Hume 
in his Essay on Interest, vol. 1, p. 315. 

As soon as the land of any country has all be- 
come private property, the landlords demand a 
rent for its natural produce. The wood of the fo- 
rest, the grass of the field, and all the natural 
fruits of the earth, which, when land was in 
common, cost the laborer only the trouble of ga- 
thering them, come to him now with an additional 
price fixed upon them. He must pay for the li- 
cense to gather them ; and must give up to the 



9S HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

landlord a portion of what his labor either coHects 
or produces. This portion, or what comes to 
the same thing, the price of this portion consti- 
tutes the rent of land ; and in the price of the great- 
er part of commodities it makes a third compo- 
nent part. 

The real value of all the different component 
parts of price is measured by the quantity of la- 
bor which they can, each of them, purchase or 
command. Labor measures the value not only 
of that part of price which resolves itself into la- 
bor, but of that which resolves itself into rent, and 
of that which resolves itself into profit. 

In every society the price of every commodity 
finally resolves itself into some one or other, or 
all of these three parts ; and in every improved 
society all the three enter more or less, as compo- 
nent parts, into the price of the far greater portion 
of commodities. In the price of corn, for exam- 
ple, one part pays the rent of the landlord ; ano- 
ther pays the wages or maintenance of the labor- 
ers and laboring cattle employed in producing 
it; and the third part pays the living profit of the 
farmer. 

The ordinary market-price of land depends every 
where upon the ordinary market-rate of interest. 
The person who has a capital from which he wish- 
es to derive a revenue, without the trouble of em- 
ploying it himself, deliberates whether he should 
|)uy land vvith his money or lend it out at interest;\ 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 93 

The superior security of land, together with some 
other advantages which almost every where attend 
upon this species of property, will generally dis-, 
pose him to content himself with a smaller revenue 
from land, than he could gain by lending his mo- 
ney out at interest. 

These advantages however are only sufficient to 
compensate a certain difference of revenue; and 
if the rent of land should fall short of the interest 
of money by a greater difference, no one would 
buy land, which would soon reduce its ordinary 
price. On the contrary, if the advantages should 
much more than compensate the difference, every 
one would buy land, which again would soon raise 
its ordinary price. 

When interest was at ten per cent, land was 
commonly sold for ten and twelve years purchase. 
As interest sunk to six, five, and four per cent, the 
price of land rose to twenty, five-and-twenty, and 
thirty year's purchase. Before the French revolu- 
tion, the market rate of interest was higher in 
France than in England, and the common price of 
land lower. In England it was commonly sold, as 
it now is, at thirty, and in France at twenty years 
purchase. 

At present, in 1809, land in France fetches a 
purchase-money of only ten or twelve years ; and 
I am assured, on the authority of a most respect- 
able American merchant, lately returned from 
Paris, that money may be had in that city at a 



94 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

rate of interest so low as three or four per cent, 
since the British Orders in Council have destroyed 
the French trade ; but that before the full opera- 
tion of those Orders was felt, namely, so late as the 
beginning of the year 1808, money at Paris bore 
an interest of from ten to fifteen per cent. 

This apparent paradox depends, I imagine, up- 
on the total annihilation of French commerce 
throwing the small pittance of capital now in 
France nearly or altogether out of employment ; 
whence the capitalists being able to raise no re- 
venue from their stock, are willing to let it out even 
at a low rate of interest rather than suffer it to lie 
quite idle, and produce no return of profit. 

From not taking into consideration, that low- 
ness of interest must be connected with a high 
price of land, and with small profits on stock, in 
order to exhibit the proof of national prosperity, 
many politicians in the United States now adduce 
the present low rate of interest in France as con- 
clusive of her great internal prosperity ; forget- 
ting at the same time to state that the price of her 
land is very low, and the profits of the little stock 
which she can employ are enormously high ; the 
most evident demonstration of the miserable and 
beggarly state of all her people. 

There is another mistake respecting the condi- 
tion of France, which is also very freely travelling 
over the union. The American merchants and cap- 
tains of vessels on their return to this country uni- 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 95 

formly report that there is a great quantity of spe- 
ciey and scarely any paper-money circulating in 
France, "and therefore," say the class of politi- 
cians to whom I allude, " since France has plenty 
of money in coin and no paper, and since Britain 
has no money in specie and large quantities of 
paper-currency, France is richer than Britain." — 
Q. E. D. 

This very palpable noji-seqiiitur originates in an 
extreme unacquaintance with the most obvious 
truths, and the very fundamental principles of po- 
litical economy. 

The substitution of paper-money in the room of 
specie is evidently one of those great improve- 
ments which necessarily takes place in a country 
where credit and confidence are established by a 
steady and equitable administration of justice, pro- 
tecting private property, and giving scope to com- 
mercial enterprise. It substitutes a cheap for a 
dear instrument, with which to carry on the ope- 
rations of trade ; it leaves a larger quantity of spe- 
cie to be employed in those branches of foreign 
commerce where specie is absolutely necessary ,; 
it abridges time and labor, and thus facilitates and 
quickens commercial transactions ; since a check 
for a hundred thousand dollars might be signed in 
a minute, whereas it would consume a whole day 
to count out this sum in specie. 

Accordingly those nations which are best go- 
verned, which have the most internal liberty com 



96" HINTS ON iHt NATIONAL 

bined with the most extensive commercial enter- 
prise, use the least quantity of specie, and the 
most paper-currency in their transitions. In 
Britain and in the United States, the only two 
countries in the world where there are any pre- 
tensions to a regular administration of justice, the 
merchants trade on credit, because they have suf- 
ficient confidence in each other's integrity, and in 
the justice of the laws of the respective countries 
that they will enforce the payment of just debts. 
But among the French, Italians, and Spaniards, 
here is little or no commercial credit. 

But commercial credit is the origin and support 
of paper-money ; whence in Britain, where com- 
mercial credit stands higher than any where else, 
specie is less frequently seen in circulation ; and 
paper-money constitutes nearly the whole medium 
of exchange in that country. In the United States, 
whose commerce, before it was destroyed by the 
embargo, laid on in December 1807, was next in 
extent and importance to that of Britain, there 
was proportionally rather more specie in circula- 
tion than in Britain; but if the trade of this coun- 
try should ever revive, and be increased beyond 
its former size, specie will be more and more with- 
drawn from the market, and paper-currency will 
supply its place. 

In the British dominions bordering on the union, 
namely, in Canada, Nova Scotia, and New-Bruns- 
wick, befpre the American embargo had laid the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. ^ 

Rxe to the root of all the commerce in the United 
States, gold and silver were the common currency, 
and little or no paper-money was to be seen; but 
now that the embargo has poured a vast and a con- 
tinually increasing flood of trade and wealth into 
those colonies of Britain, banks begin to be esta- 
blished, and paper money to be substituted for 
specie. 

Will the politicians whose inferences I am now 
combating, conclude from these facts, that the 
British American colonies were richer than the 
United States because before the embargo they 
had more specie, and less paper-money ? and also 
that these colonies, since the embargo has so incal- 
culably augmented their trade and capital, are 
poorer than they were before, because they have 
now less gold and silver and more paper-money in 
circulation ? 

In France, at this moment, the transfers of mo- 
ney are made chiefly in specie, very little paper 
being seen in circulation; because credit is almost 
stifled in that country by the despotism of the go- 
vernment, which renders all private property inse-- 
cure. In Algiers also, the government of which 
is nearly as infamous and oppressive as that of 
France, the medium of exchange consists almost 
entirely of gold and silver. 

The reason of this is obvious ; it is because des- 
potism and credit are incompatible ; for who will 
voluntarily trust him that cannot be compelled to 

o 



98 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

pay his debts ? Hence the absurdity of supposing 
that an enslaved country can ever become exten- 
sively commercial ; the rigors of despotism must 
be softened before even the germ of an extended 
trade can be planted; before credit, which is the 
true aliment of commerce, can florish, or even 
be brought into existence. 

In Russia the Government has long endeavored 
to create and foster an extensive commerce; but 
all the attempts of the Muscovite Monarchs, from 
the first Peter down to the present emperor Alex- 
ander, have been ineffectual ; and a scanty trade, 
together with a circulation consisting chiefly of spe- 
cie, continues to mock the attempts of those nor- 
thern barbarians to unite despotism with commer- 
cial credit. In order to establish that mercantile 
confidence which alone can substitute paper cur- 
rency in the room of specie, for the purpose of car- 
rying on the ordinary money-transactions of that 
empire, the Russian government must give a 
much greater security to the life, the Hberty, and 
the property of its people, than can possibly be 
found in the contents of a ukase, or imperial de- 
cree, published at the uncontrolled will of the Sove- 
reign, or at the interested suggestion of his cour- 
tiers. 

Bonaparte and Alexander may continue for a 
while to be great military powers, by continuing to 
oppress their people, and to sacrifice the happi- 
ness of their subjects to their own peculiar views 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &e. 99 

of personal, selfish ambition: but it is not in their 
power, by all their edicts and decrees, to compel the 
establishment of commerce in the soil of tyranny. 

But to return; — the circumstances under which 
a low rate of interest demonstrates the national 
prosperity of a country, may be seen from the fol- 
lowing facts and observations: 

Whoever derives his revenue from a fund vi^hich 
is his own, must draw it either from his labor, or 
from his stock, or from his land. The revenue de- 
rived from labor is called wages ; that derived from 
stock by the person who manages or employs it is 
called profit; but that derived from stock by the 
person who does not employ it himself, but lends 
it to another, is called the interest, or the use of 
the money, it is the compensation which the 
borrower pays to the lender for the profit that he 
has an opportunity of making by the use of the 
money. 

Part of that profit naturally belongs to the bor- 
rovver, who runs the risk, and takes the trouble of 
employing it; and part to the lender, who affords 
him the opportunity of making this profit. The 
interest of money is always a derivative revenue, 
which, if it is not paid from the profit that is made 
by the use of the money, must be paid from some 
other source of revenue, unless perhaps the bor- 
rower be a spendthrift, who contracts a second 
debt in order to pay the interest of the first. 

The revenue which proceeds altogether from 



100 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

land is called rent, and belongs to the landlord. 
Now although it be impossible to determine pre- 
cisely what are, or were, the average profits of 
stock, either in the present or in ancient times, 
some notion may be formed of them from the in-- 
terest of money ; because wherever a great deal 
can be made by the use of money, a great deal 
will commonly be given for its use ; and wherever 
little can be made by its use, little will be given 

for that use. 

According, therefore, as the usual market rate 
of interest varies in any country, we may be as- 
sured that the ordinary profits of stock must vary 
with it, must sink as it sinks, and rise as it rises j 
whence the progress of interest may point out in 
some measure the progress of profit. 

A high rate of interest arises from three circum- 
stances ; a great demand for borrowing; little 
riches to supply that demand ; and great profits 
arising from the use of slock. And these circum- 
circumstances are a conclusive proof of the small 
advance of industry and commerce. 

A low rate of interest proceeds from three op- 
posite circumstances; a small demand for borrow- 
ing ; great riches to supply that demand ; and 
small profits arising from the employment of capi- 
tal. And these three circumstances are all con- 
iiected together, and are the results of increased, 
industry and extensive commerce. 

1. As to the causes and effects of a great oy 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 101 

small demand for borrowing; when a people have 
emerged ever so little from a savage state, and 
their numbers have increased beyond the original 
multitude, an inequality of property must instantly 
arise ; and while some possess large tracts of land, 
others are confined within narrow limits, and some 
have no landed property. Those who possess 
more land than they can themselves occupy, em- 
ploy those who possess none, and agree to receive 
a determinate part of the product, as rent. 

Thus the landed interest is immediately establish- 
ed j nor is there any settled government, however 
rude, in which affairs are not on this footing. Of 
these proprietors some must presently discover 
themselves to be of different tempers from others ; 
and while one would willingly store up the produce 
of his land for futurity, another desires to consume 
at present what ought to suffice for many years. 
But as the spending of a settled revenue is a way 
of life entirely without occupation, and men have 
a continual need of something to fix and engage 
their attention, pleasures, such as they are, will 
be the pursuit of the greater part of the land hol- 
ders, and the prodigals among them will always 
be more numerous than the misers. 

In a state, therefore, where there is nothing but 
a landed or agricultural interest, as there is little 
frugality, the borrowers must be very numerous 
and the rate of interest proportionally high. This 
depends on the prevailing habits- and manners, by 
which alone the demand for borrowing is increased 



102 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

or diminished. So long as there are only landed 
gentry and peasants in the state, the borrowers 
must be numerous and the rate of interest high ; 
because the idleness of the landlord dissipates 
property rapidly, and incurs the necessity of his 
running in debt. 

2. As to the great or little wealth which is to 
supply the demand for borrowing; — this also de- 
pends upon the prevailing habits and manners of 
the people. In order to produce in any given coun- 
try a great number of lenders, it is only requisite 
that the property, or the command of that quantity 
which is in the state, whether great or small, 
should be collected in particular hands, so as to 
formconsiderablesums, or compose a great monied 
interest. This begets a number of lenders, and 
sinks the rate of interest, in consequence of those 
particular manners and customs which cause the 
specie to be gathered into separate sums or mas- 
ses of considerable value. 

But these particular manners and customs re- 
sult from an increase of industry and frugality ; 
of arts and of commerce. Every thing useful to 
man arises from the ground ; but few things arise 
in a condition fitted to render them useful. There 
must be, therefore, in addition to the peasants 
and the land-proprietors, another rank of men, 
who, receiving from the husbandman the rude ma- 
terials, work them into their proper form, and re- 
tain part for their own subsistence. In the infan- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 103 

cy of society these contracts between the artisans 
and tlie peasants, and between one species of arti- 
sans and another, are commonly entered into by 
the persons them>elves, who, being neighbors, 
are easily acquainted with each others necessities, 
and can lend their mutual assistance to supply 
them. 

But when the industry of men increases, and 
their views enlarge, it is found that the most re- 
mote parts of the state can assist each other as 
well as the more contiguous, and that this inter- 
course of good offices can be carried on to the ut- 
most extent and intricacy. Hence the origin of 
merchants, one of the most useful races of men, 
who serve as agents between those parts of the 
state that are wholly unacquainted with, and ig- 
norant of each other's necessity. 

In a city, say, there are fifty workmen in silk 
and linen, and a thousand customers ; these two 
ranks of men, so necessary to each other, can ne- 
ver rightly meet until one man erects a shop or 
store, to which all the workmen and all custo- 
mers repair. In this province, say, grass rises in 
abundance ; the inhabitants have plenty of cheese, 
butter, and cattle, but want corn and bread, which 
in a neighboring province are too abundant for 
the sole use of its inhabitants. One man discovers 
this ; and he forthwith carries corn from the one 
province, and returns with cattle ; and thus sup- 



104. HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

plying the wants of both, he is a common bene-* 
factor. 

As the people increase in numbers and indus- 
try, the difficulty of their intercourse increases. 
The business of the agency or merchandise be-' 
comes more intricate, and divides, sub-divides, 
compounds, and mixes in a greater degree of vari- 
ety. In all these transactions it is necessary and 
reasonable that a considerable portion of the com- 
modities and labor should belong to the mer- 
chant, to whom they are in a great measure owing. 
And these commodities he will sometimes pre- 
serve in kind, but more generally convert into 
money which is their common representation. 

There is no craving or demand of the human 
mind more constant and insatiable than that for' 
exercise and employment ; and this desire ap- 
pears to put in motion almost all our passions and 
pursuits. Deprive a man of all business and seri- 
ous occupation, and he runs restless from one 
amusement to another, and the weight and oppres- 
sion which he feels from idleness is so great, that 
he forgets the ruin which must inevitably over- 
take him from his immoderate expenses. 

Give him a more harmless way of employing 
his mind or his body, according to his capacitj^, 
he is satisfied, and no longer feels an insatiable 
thirst after pleasure. But if the employment 
given to him be lucrative, more especially if the 
profit be attached to everij particular exertion of 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &e. ibS 

his industry, he has gain so often in his eye, that 
he gradually acquires a passion for it, and knows 
no pleasure equal to that of seeing the daily in- 
crease of his fortune. And this is the reason why 
trade increases frugality, and why among mer- 
chants there is the same overplus of misers above 
prodigals, as among the land-proprietors the con- 
verse takes place. 

Commerce increases industry by conveying it 
readily from one member of the state to another, 
and allowing none of it to perish or become use- 
less. It increases frugality by giving occupation 
to men, and employing them in the arts of gain, 
which soon engage their affections, and remove 
all desire for pleasure and expense. It is an infal- 
lible consequence of all industrious profes^iions 
to beget frugality, and make the love of gain pre- 
dominate over the love of pleasure. 

Thus, among lawyers and physicians who have 
any practice, there are many more who live within 
than beyond, or even up to the limits of their in- 
come. But lawyers and physicians, according to 
Doctor Adam Smith's theoretical division of la- 
borers into productive, and unproductive beget 
no industry ; nay, they acquire their riches at 
the expense of others, so that they diminish the 
possessions of some of their fellow-citizens as fast 
as they increase their own. 

Merchants on the contrary create industry, by 
serving as canals to convey it through every corner 

P 



106 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

of the state ; and at the same time by their frugality 
they acquire great power over that industry, and 
collect a large property in the labor and commodi- 
ties, which they are chiefly instrumental in produ- 
cing. There is, therefore, no other profession ex- 
cept that of merchandise which can produce a 
great monied interest; or in other words, can in- 
crease industry, and by increasing frugality also, 
give a great command of that industry to particu- 
lar menibers of the community. 

Without commerce the state must consist chief- 
ly of landed gentry whose prodigality and ex- 
pense create a continual demand for borrowings 
and of peasantry uho have no sums lo supply that 
demand, For an exemplification of this principle, 
look at Virginia, the most anti-commercial state 
in the union, where the land is almost entirely 
parcelled out amongst a few over-grown proprie- 
tors, who, with very few exceptions, pass the whole 
of their lives, in every succeeding generation, in 
debt to an enormous amount ; and as their landed 
property cannot be attached for debt, their credit- 
ors who belong mostly to the commercial states 
of this country, in general have the satisfaction of 
losing both principal and interest. 

In a mere landed or agricultural state of socie- 
ty, money never can be gathered into large stocks 
or sums, which may be lent out at interest. It is 
dispersed into numberless hands, who either squan- 
der it in idle show and beggarly magnificence, or 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 10? 

employ it in the purchase of the common necessa- 
ries of life. Commerce alone is able to assemble 
it into considerable sums and masses ; inconse- 
quence of the industry which it creates, and the 
frugality which it inspires. Whence commerce 
produces a great number of lenders, by whose 
mutual competition in the money-market, the rate 
of interest is considerably lowered. 

3. As to ^he increase of cominerce diminishing 
the profits of stock, and thus lowering the rate of 
interest. Low interest and low profits of stock 
mutually forward each others progress, and are 
both originally derived from that extensive com- 
merce which produces opulent merchants, and 
builds up a great monied interest. 

Where merchants possess great stocks, it must 
frequently happen that when they either become 
tired of business, or leave heirs unfit or unwilling 
to engage in commerce, a large proportion of the 
stock or capital naturally seeks an annual and a se- 
cure revenue. The abundance of money, like 
the plenty of every other marketable commodity, 
diminishes its price, and compels the lenders to 
accept a low rate of interest ; which very circum- 
stance obliges many to keep their stock still em- 
ployed in trade, and rather be content with low 
profits on their merchandise than dispose of their 
money to the borrowers at an under- value ofin- 
trest. 

But when commerce has become extensive, and 



108 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

employs large capitals, there must arise j^reat 
competition among the merchants, which dimin- 
ishes the profits of each separate portion of trade, 
while at the same time it increases the aggregate 
quantity of trade itself. The low profi^ts of stocii 
induce the merchants more willingly to accept 
a low rate of interest, when they leave off business, 
and begin to sink into indolence and ease. 

Thus low interest for money and low profits on 
stock arise from an extensive commerce, and mu- 
tually forward each others progress. No man 
will accept of low profits in trade where he can 
have high interest on his money out of it; and no 
man will accept of low interest for his money 
where he can have high profits on the employment 
of his stock. An extensive commeice, by creating 
large capitals, diminishes both interest and profits, 
and is always assisted in its diminution of the one 
by the proportional sinking of the other. Low 
profits also, as they arise from the increase of com- 
merce and industry, serve in^their turn to pro- 
mote the progress of commerce by rendering the 
commodities cheaper, encouraging their more 
extended consumption, and thus augmenting in- 
dustry. 

Whence, if we consider the zvliolc connection of 
causes and effects, inlerest of money is the barom- 
eter of every community, and its low rate is an 
almost infallible sign of the flourishing condition 
of a people. It proves the increase of industry, 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 109 

and its prompt circulation throughout every quar- 
ter ofthe state, with a force and clearness little in- 
ferior to mathematical demonstration. 

And though it may not be impossible for a sud- 
den and a great check to commerce, as is the case 
in France, now in 1809, to produce a momentary 
effect of the same kind, namely, to lower the rate 
of interest, by throwing a vast many stocks out of 
trade ; yet this must always be attended with such 
extensive misery and want of employment to the 
poor; with such a low price of land ,; and with such 
enormous profits on the stock still employed ; that 
besides its inevitably short duration, owing to the 
universal beggary speedily following such an or- 
der of things, it will not be possible to mistake the 
one case for the other; to be for a moment doubt- 
ful vohen^ and under ivhat circumstances, a low 
rate of interest is a conclusive proof of national 
prosperity. 

The value of land in Britain has progressively 
increased, in consequence of improvements in 
agriculture, low rate of interest, and the increased 
consumption of the produce of the soil. Before 
England became a trading nation, the average 
price of land was only twelve years purchase; and 
it is no more, at the present day, in France, since 
her commerce has been annihilated. 

In the beginning ofthe seventeenth century land 
in England was sold for a purchase-money of from 
fourteen to sixteen years; and at the commence- 



110 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

mentofthe eighteenth century it had advanced 
to about eighteen years purchase; in half a centu- 
ry more it rose to about twenty-four years pur- 
chase ; and, at present, is generally valued at from 
twenty-eight to thirty years purchase. In some 
parts of Scotland the value of land has increased in 
a still greater proportion. We learn from Mr. 
Smith's Statistical Account and Agricultural Sur- 
vey of Argyleshire, that it is not unfrequent for 
estates in North Britain, and more especially in 
the Scottish Highlands, to fetch a purchase-money 
of forty years. The valued rent of the county of 
Argylein the year 1757 was only £, 12,466; but 
the real value in 1795 was Jj 112,752, having in 
less than ioxKy years increased nine fold. 

The progressive influx of wealth into Britain 
bears a proportion still much greater than the most 
sanguine calculator could expect; since, according 
to Sir William D'Avenant, the general rental of 
England for lands, houses, and mines, in the year 
1600, did not exceed six millions per annum, which 
multiplied by twelve years purchase, the common 
price for land at that period, made a total value of 
landed property equal to seventy-two millions. 

The general rental of England for 1688, by the 
same writer computed at fourteen millions, and 
valued at eighteen years purchase, would conse- 
quently at that time be worth two hundred and 
iitty-two millions. At this rate he also estimated 
the general rental and value of land iij 1698, when 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. Ill 

his discourses on public revenue and trade were 
written. Hence, in tlie seventeenth century the 
rental of land had increased in more than a two- 
fold, and its value in more than a threefold pro- 
portion. 

By Sir William Petty's computation in the year 
1664, the total wealth of the nation, consisting of 
lands, houses, shipping, gold and silver coin, 
wares, merchandise, plate, furniture, &c. amount- 
ed only to two hundred and fifty millions ; and 
the whole annual profit upon this national stock, 
he computed at fifteen millions. In the beginning 
of the eighteenth century, Mr. Gregory King, in 
his Political Observations, computed the landed 
and personal property of Britain at six hundred 
and iifteen millions. Mr. Hooke, in his Essay on 
the National Debt, &c. published in 17<50, estima- 
ted the whole value of British real and personal 
property at two thousand one hundred millions 
sterling. 

Sir William Pulteny, in his Considerations on 
the present state of Public Affairs, published in 
1779, valued the landed and personal property of 
Britain at two thousand millions. The total 
amount of British wealth in the year 1790, was 
computed by Dr. Beeke to be two thousand five 
hundred millions sterling, exclusive of one hun- 
dred millions sterling, the value of foreign 
possessions belonging to the subjects of Britain. 
And finally the value of lands, houses, and per- 



11« HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

sonal property in Britain was computed (and 
with sufficient exactness) b>' Mr. Bird, in his 
Proposal for paying off the National Debt, p'.b- 
lished in 1799 to amount to two thousand seven 
hundred millions ; the vakie of the landed pro- 
perty being £ 1,580,000,000 

And that of the personal property 

amounting to 1,450,000,000 



Total of British property, £ 2,700,000,000 



J'he value cvfthe whole annual produce of landed 
and personal property in Britain may be fairly es- 
timated at four hundred and five millions sterling, 
being computed at fifteen per cent, since the an- 
nual legal interest of five per cent, of this accumu- 
lated wealth amounts to one hundred and thirty-five 
millions j forthe usual allowanceof the annual value 
of the produce of a farm is three times the amount 
of the yearly rent; namely, one third paid as rent 
to the land proprietor ; one third expended in 
replacing the wear and tear of the farming stock, 
consisting of tools, cattle, buildings, &c and the 
remaining third goes as living profit to the farmer 
for the mainsenance of himself and his family. 
The same process also takes place as to capital 
employed in trade, one third portion goes to pay 
the legal interest of five per cent, to the owner of 
the capital ; another third goes towards the main- 
tenance of the trader and his household j and the 



BANKRUPTCY OF MiTAIN, &C. 113 

remaining third goes towards the accumulation oi 
fresh capital. 

In comparing the rental and value of Britain's 
landed property at present with the estimate made 
by Sir Wi.liam D'Avenant one hundred years 
since, we shall find, by a simple calculation, that 
valuing the present British landed property, in* 
cumbered with tithes, at twenty-eight years pur- 
chase, the annual rental corresponding to one 
thousand two hundred and fifty millions, will 
amount to upwards of foi --y-four millions and a 
half; which proves an increased rental of thirty 
millions per annum in the space of one century. 

In the year 1798, Mr. Pitt in the House of Com- 
mons stated the annual income, arising from lands., 
tithes, mine?, timber, and houses in Britain, to be 
forty-four millions sterling. 

In comparing the present valued amount with 
that of the year 1700, we shall find that during 
the eighteenth century the national capital has in- 
creased in more than a ten-fold proportion ; for in- 
stance : 

In 1700 the national ca[)ital 

amounted to ....<£ 250,000,000 
Which multiplied by . . * . 10 

Gives ^2,500,000,000 



114 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

But in 1800 the British national 

capital was of 2,700,000,000 



making an excess of two hundred millions ster- 
ling, above ten times the sum of British national 
capital in the year 1700. 

Hence, since Sir William Petty's computation, 
one hundred and thirty-six years ago, the national 
wealth of Britain has increased in the immense 
sum of two thousand four hundred and fifty mil- 
lions ; and the annual legal interest of this in- 
crease of wealth, amounts to upwards of one hun- 
dred and twenty-seven millions five hundred thou- 
sand pounds sterling. If, therefore, we allow 
fifteen per cent, for the annual profits or produce 
of such increase of wealth, it will amount to up- 
wards of three hundred and eighty-two millions 
five hundred thousand pounds of additional na- 
tional increase in less tlian one hundred and fifty 
years. 

The national wealth of Britain having increased 
in so wonderful a degree, it is natural to suppose 
that her power has also kept pace with the aug* 
mentation of her riches. And whether we consi- 
der separately or conjointly the increased number 
of shipping and seamen ; the increase of build- 
ings and population ; the augmented manufac- 
tures and trade; the improvements in agricul- 
ture, and the increased value of lands and 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &e. 



115 



houses ; the increased conveniencies and luxuries 
of life, and the augmented circulating medium, 
including gold and silver, and paper currency in 
Britain, we shall find that they have all increased 
nearly in the same proportion, and have mutually 
kept pace with each other. 

It therefore requires no depth of argument, nor 
ingenuity of disquisition, to convince the most in- 
credulous mind of the comparative facility with 
which the present immense British revenue is 
drawn from such indubitable sources ; and that 
too, without bearing hard upon the lower orders 
of the people in Britain, 

The following table will show at one glance, 
the annual expenditure, computed on a medium 
of twenty-five years ; the national capital and the 
yearly national income of Britain, during the 
eighteenth century. 





Annual Expenditure com- 






Tears. 


puted on a medium of 
tvjenty-five years. 


national Capital. 


National Income. 




£ 


£ 


£ 


1700 


5,765,173 


250,0()0,000 


15,000,000 


l72i 


8,357,765 


615,000,000 


45,000,000 


1750 


10,473,620 


2,000,000,000 


200,000,000 


1775 18,478,932 


2,200,000,000 


270,000,000 


1800 26,789,604 


2,700,000,000 


405,000,000 



Now the third part of the whole national income 
of a country, that part which in general goes to 
the accumulation of national capital, may be con- 



116 



If I NTS ON THE NATIONAL 



sidered as the nett or taxable income of that coufi 
try ; the other two-thirds of the gross annual in- 
come go to maintain the annual consumption, and 
to put in motion the annual productive industry of 
the country. Whence, as the whole yearly national 
income of Britain amounts to four hundred and 
five millions sterling, her nett or taxable income, 
being one-third of her gross income, is one hun- 
dred and thirty-five millions per annum. 

But her present annual amount in 1809 of tax- 
ation is only sixty millions, not half of her taxa- 
ble, and about eighteen per cent, on the whole of 
her gross income. The following table will show 
that her taxable income has increased in a greater 
ratio during the eighteenth century than her ex- 
penditure has increased ; and consequently that 
she is better able to bear her present annual bur- 
dens than she was those which were imposed upon 
her in the beginning of the period in question. 



Tears. 


Annval expenditure on a me- 


minimal taxable income. 




dium of 25 years. 






£ 


£ ^ 


1700 


5,765,173 


5,000,000 


1725 


8,357,76"5 


15,000,000 


1750 


10,473,620 


66,600,000 


1775 


l<S,57cS,C)32 


90,000,000 


1800 


26,789,604 


135,000,000 



It is to be remembered that the present extra- 
ordinary expenditure of Britain, far exceeds the 
average amount of her annual expenditure com- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 1 17 

puted on a medium of twenty-five years ; and, 
therefore, that her taxable income, in point of 
fact, bears a much greater proportion to her usu- 
al expenditure, than at this crisis of affairs it ap- 
pears to bear. 

The increased productiveness of the taxes of 
Britain is also a conclusive proof that her nett an- 
nual or taxable income increases more rapidly 
than her yearly burden of taxation is augmented; 
a circumstance indeed that might a priori have 
been inferred from the vast increase of British 
manufactures and commerce. 

In the space of twenty-two years from the resto- 
ration, in 1666', to the British revolution, in 1688, 
the exports of Britain and the tonnage of her tra- 
ding ships were doubled; for instance : 

Exports. Tons of shipping. 

At the restoration £ 2,04^,043 . . 95,^266 
At the revolution 4,086,000 . . 190,533 

And in the last twenty years of the eighteenth 
^entpiry, namely, from 1780 to 1800, inclusive, 
the imports of Britain were more than doubled, 
and her exports nearly trebled : 

Imports. Exports. 

In 1780, . . ^11,700,000 ,£13,554,093 
In 1800, . . 29,945,808 35,990,000 



118 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

The revenue of the British Post-Office, which is 
always a pretty exact gage of a nation's prospe- 
rity, has increased twelve-fold within the eigh- 
teenth century : 

In 1700, ^58,672 

In 1800, 717,335 

The revenue arising from consumption of luxu- 
ries has also increased in a very great degree, par- 
ticularly daring the last twenty years. The Brit- 
ish taxes in the year 1792, including those repeal- 
ed that year, amounted to £ 14,132,000. The fol- 
lowing is the state of the old revenue up to the year 
180''2 ; its average increase is the more remarkable, 
because in the year 1799 Jiew taxes were impo- 
sed to the amount of more than £ 7,500,000 a 
year, and in 1802, nearly the most productive 
year of the whole, a farther sum of jl 7,000,000 
was raised by an aid and contribution, by volun- 
tary subscripMons, and by the convoy-tax. 

During the last British war, which commenced 
in 1793, by the provisions of the consolidation 
act, the accounts of the 7iezv taxes imposed since 
the year 179S, were kept distinct from the o/rf re- 
venue arising from taxes laid on before the year 
179'^. These accounts were annually laid before 
the Parliament of Britain, in order to show how 
far the taxes imposed were sufficient to pay the 
interest of the debt created, and to provide a sink- 
ing fund for its gradual extinction. But in the 
year 1803 the duties of customs; excise, and stamps. 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 



119 



imposed before 1792, were consolidated with those 
imposed since that year; whence the amount of 
the old, as distinguished from that of the new taxes, 
can no longer be known at the British exchequer. 

Produce of the permanent taxes imposed in Britain 



Remarks. 



The taxes 
funded 
1784 and 1785 



for the debt 
were imposed in 



before 1792. 

Years. 

1786 

1787 



and \\\e{ 1788 



consolidation of the Cus- 
toms took place in 1787. 



1789 

1790 

1.1791 



Sums^. 

£ 12,104,798 
11,867,065 
12,923,134 
13,007,642 
13,433,068 
14,072,978 
14,132,000 



Total, <£ 91,540,675 



Average of these seven years, . £, 13,077,239 
Deducted taxes repealed in 1792, 223,000 



And the average of the seven 



years is 



In this period new tax 
es were imposed to the-( 
amount of i! 7,500,000 a 
Year. 



ri792 
1793 
1794 
1795 
1796 
1797 

LI 798 



£ 12,854,239 

14,284,000 
13,941,000 
13,858,000 
13,557,000 
14,292,000 
1 3,332,000 
14,275,000 



Total, 



£ 97,539,000 



ISO HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

Average of these seven years, . £, 13,934,000 
Average of the first seven years, . 12,854,000 



Excess in the last over the 

first average of seven years 1,080,000 



In this period taxes were ^ 

imposed to the amount off 1799, . 15,727,000 

i; 7,468,000, as proved by) 1800, . 14,238,000 

their actual produce laid j 1801, . 14,641,000 

before the British House off 1802, . 15,433,0o0 
Commons, in June, 1804. ^ 



Total, i: 60,039,000 



Average of these four years . . £ 15,00^,000 
Average of the first seven years 14,854,000 



Excess of the average of these 
four years over that of the first 
seven years jO 2,155,000 



The permanent taxes in Britain imposed since 
the year 1792, exhibit rather a greater ratio of 
increased productiveness than do those which 
were laid on before that year. 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 12 1 

The permanent taxes and hereditary revenue of 
Britain produces now, in 1809, an annual income 
of thirty-eight millions, four hundred fourteen 
thousand, and ninety-nine pounds. 

A very general mistake prevails throughout the 
United States respecting the portion of her public 
revenue which Britain derives from her imposts 
on commerce. As the American government de- 
rives the whole of its revenue from duties on com- 
modities imported into the union, the people of 
this country generally imagine that the British na- 
tional revenue also depends chiefly upon her cus- 
toms, which however, in fact, make but a very 
small part of her annual public income. 

The following statement of the amount of the 
British customs in the year 1800, is taken from the 
Returns of the Collector-General to the Commit- 
tee of Finance. 

£ s. d. 

On imports and exports from the 

custom-house, London, . . 6,432,197, 18 10 
On imports and exports frorp the 

custom-house in Edinburgh, 331,100 
West- India duty of four and a 

half per cent 36,457 14 9 



Total of British customs for 

the year 1800, . . <£ 6,799,775 1 3 



122 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

In the year 1800, the british merchandise on 

which these customs were paid, amounted to an 
official value of 

£ s. 

Imports from Asia 9,827,278 

elsewhere . . . 45,573,138 



Total of imports, .... i: 55,400,416 5 



Exports of British merchandise, £ 39,471,203 
foreign do. 16,359,640 13 



Total of exports, . . . . £ 55,830,843 13 
imports, .... 55,400,416 5 



Total of British exports 

and imports for 1800, . £ 111,231,259 17 



Thus the customs of Britain produce only an an- 
nual revenue of about six pei^cent. upon the whole 
official amount of her yearly imports and exports. 

It appears from the report of the Secretary of 
the American treasury, dated February 27, 1808, 
that in the year 1807, the trade of the United 
States surpassed by about the value of fifty millions 
of dollars all that any former year had produced ; 
the whole annual value being then two hundred 
and sixteen millions of dollars. In this year the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 125 

imports frorn Britain into the United States, to- 
getlier with their exports into Britain, reduced 
from dollars into sterling, ran thus : 

Imports from Britain into the 

Union in 1807, .... «£ 11,600,000 

Exports from the Union to 

Britain, 5,400,000 



Total of imports and exports, £ 17,000,000 



The British Customs upon the 
whole of this sum at six per 
cent, would give a yearly 
revenue of £ 1,020,000 



But from this sum of seventeen millions must 
be deducted four millions ; because goods to that 
amount, which had been usually imported from 
Britain into the United States, were annually 
smuggled from the Union into the Spanish and 
Portuguese American colonies. These goods, 
however, now find their way direct from Britain in- 
to Spanish and Portuguese America, in British bot- 
toms, and can no longer be considered as part 
of the trade between the United States and the 
British empire. 



124 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

Supposing, then, that the United States will ever 
again possess such an extensive commerce as 
they had in the year 1807, the whole annual trade 
between them and Britain will amount to seven- 
teen millions, minus four millions, that is to say, 
to thirteen millions sterling, upon which the 
British customs at six per cent, will yield a yearly 
revenue to the public treasury of England, of only 
seven hundred and eighty thousand pounds ; 
not quite o^ze hundredlli part of Britain's annual 
national expenditure ; about enoui^h to supply 
the expenses of her government for /owr daifs. 



;«K'0«tM' — 



SECOND DIVISION 



CHAPTER 1. 

But the national debt of Britain, say Mr. Hau- 
iet ive, and Arthur O'Conner, whose assertions are 
re echoed by many millions of tongues, through- 
out the globe, is so enormous, that having no 
means of ever paying it offj nay, not even of pre- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 125 

venting its rapid increase, she must speedily take 
the sponge and wipe the whole away in exliibitmg 
an awful spectacle of universal bankruptcy. 

I am very well aware that using the sponge, or 
in plain E-iglisli, cheating their creditors, is a much 
more palatable measure to all the jacobins of 
France and of every other country than is the pay- 
ment of their just debts. But such an infamous and 
cowardly proceeding does not suit either the po- 
licy or the inclination of the British government. 

Hitherto Britain has found no difficulty in regu- 
larly paying the annual interest of her public debt; 
and she will not easily be induced to adopt so revo- 
lutionary, so jaco1)inical a measure as that of fal- 
sifying the national faith; and, descending from 
her present elevated station, as the champion of 
justice, law, order, and integrity, become in fact 
the imitator and the rival of the fraudulent and pro- 
tligate policy of France. 

For what, as the late justly celebrated Fisher 
x4mes emphatically observes, is revolution? what 
is jacobinism? what is their favorite work, but 
first and with most malignant ardor to destroy what 
faith, and law, and morals, and religion have estab- 
lished and guarded ? 

The British national debt is spread over all the 
empire, it has taken wide and deep root for more 
than a century; and rudely to tear up that root 
from the soil would shake the security of all pro 
perty and perhaps overturn the constitution of 



1^6 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

England itself. If such a nefarious step be taken 
where will the British government stop ? will it not 
proceed, as well as begin, in imitation of its neigh- 
bor France, and go onward to proscribe the pro- 
perty of its clergy, its nobles, its merchants, its 
manufacturers, its farmers, and eventually involve 
the whole nation in all the horrors of anarchy and 
blood ? 

The national debt is as much private property 
as are the possessions, landed or personal, of any 
gentleman in Britian. And if that sheet-anchor of 
society, the security of private property, be cut 
away in one instance, I see no reason why it 
should not be done in every other. If the British 
goverment sponge the public debt, what is to pre- 
vent it from plundering the vessels and the ware- 
houses of the merchants; from seizing on the 
farms of the landed gentry, and from confiscating 
the stock in trade of the manufacturers ? 

So much for the justice of a goverment's cheat- 
ing its creditors. Is the policy of such a measure a 
counterbalance for its iniquity? Suppose the debt 
were spunged away, and new loans were required 
to carry on the vast expenditure of the British na- 
tion, standing, as she does, in the gap to defend the 
whole civilized world from the most atrocious 
oppression, could the government of Britain hope 
again to erect the superstructure of national cre- 
dit upon the ruins of public faith ? would the Bri- 
tish people willingly lend their money, for the plea- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &e. 127 

sure of seeing both principal and interest annihi- 
lated at the will of any chancellor of the Exchequer 
who might think fit to flourish the sponge. 

Add to this the incalculable evils, which would 
be produced by the subversion of public credit, in 
all the classes of the community ; in the causing the 
distress and ruin of so many individual stock hol- 
ders; in palsying the arm of private industry; in 
deranging the whole state of commerce, in drying 
up the sources of manufactures ; in cripling the 
progress of agriculture, in tarnishing the national 
honour, and in rendering Britain unable to cope 
with the common enemy of mankind. 

Nor should we forget the effect which a bank- 
ruptcy of the British funds would produce upon 
other nations; for 1st, foreigners are stock-holders 
to the amount of nearly fifty millions. Now the 
ruin which the total loss of all this money must en- 
tail upon avast number of individuals dispersed 
through different countries, would be very grievi- 
ously felt, and most effectually extinguish all fu- 
ture faith on their part in the credit of the British 
government. 

And secondly, independently of the foreign 
stock-holders, the most unshaken faith in the credit 
of the British government at present pervades 
all the civilized nations of the world, and a bill 
drawn on it would find a readier sale, and com- 
mand a higher price, in Paris, in Amsterdam, in 
St. Petersburgh, in Vienna, in Berlin, in Konings- 



528 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

burgh, in Madrid, and in AVashington, than would 
bills drawn upon the respective governments of 
France, Holland, Russia, Austria, Westphalia, 
Prussia, Spain, or the United States. 

Bat if the British government should commit so 
flagrant a breach of national faith as to sponge her 
public debt, it would justify the suspicion that no 
great prudishness would be observed as to any 
other violation of solemn engagements; and the 
consequent want of all confidence in her truth and 
honour would come back upon Biitain from other 
nations, like a protested bill which returns to em- 
barrass and to disgrace an individual nierchant. 

And although her own subjects might be induced 
after a while again to repose confidence in her pro- 
mises, and to purchase public stock, when fresh 
loans should be raised; yet her bills in all foreign 
money-markets would be worth no more than 
French government bills arc now ; that is to say, 
just good for nothing. How very dreadfully this 
loss of all credit would impede all the foreign com- 
mercial and political operations of Britain, it is 
quite needless to expatiate upon. 

Nevertheless there is no occasion for the least 
shadow of alarm on this head. The British 
government will never be under TaDv necessity 
or temptation to sponge the public debts. A brief 
statement of the Funding System, in Britain will 
plainly show, that her naiional debt is not so 
great as people in general imagine, and also that 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &G. 129 

the operation of the sinking funds is gradually 
and certainly liquidating the whole amount of the 
capital borrowed, without taking a single farthing 
out of the pockets of the stock-holders. 

I shall extract the materials of the following 
statement from the facts, documents, and tables that 
are scattered up and down throughout the works of 
Mr. Rose, Mr. M'Arthur, and Mr. Comber, but 
more particularly from the very valuable and in- 
teresting productions of Mr. Rose and Mr. M'Ar- 
thur. 

A very general mistake prevails as to the real 
magnitude of Britain's national debt. It is pretty 
universally believed that she owes the enormous 
sum of six hundred millions of pounds sterling, for 
which she is supposed to pay an annual interest 
of thirty millions sterling. It is evident that those 
who make or believe this statement, are not aware 
of two circumstances, which most materially di- 
minish the bulk of the British public debt, and 
reduce its real dimensions far below its apparent 
size. 

1. The gradual depreciation of the value of money 
in reality, makes the public debt much less bur- 
densome to Britain than it would otherwise be. 
Fifty years since, a million of pounds sterling 
would go as far as double that sum would go nowj 
and at the present period it is much easier to ac- 
quire two millions sterling than it was to obtain 
half that sum fifty years ago. That is to say, a 



130 hiNTS ON THE NATIONAL 

million sterling then would put in motion twice? 
the quantity of labor that it can now purchase; 
and was more difficult to raise than double that sum 
now. 

Yet no more than the legal interest of five per 
cent, is annually paid now for the public stock, 
which was borrowed fifty years since, although a 
given quantity of that stock then would really pur- 
chase double the amount of the necessaries, conve- 
niences, or luxuries of life, which could be pro- 
cured by the same quantity nouK and consequently 
if it were to be borrowed now, would entail a dou- 
ble burden of capital and interest upon the com- 
munity. Half a century ago, say twenty millions 
sterling were borrowed, for which an annual in- 
terest of one million is now paid; but if it were 
necessary now to borrow as much money as would 
put in motion precisely the j-awz^? quantity of labor 
as twenty millions could then command, no less 
than forty millions must be raised ; and conse- 
quently an annual interest of two millions be en- 
tailed upon the public. 

So that in point of fact the British government 
is continually paying a very low rate of interest 
for the greater portion of its public debt, owing to 
the gradual but incessant depreciation of the va- 
lue of money; and the perpetually augumenting 
facility of raising large sums in con>equence of 
the rapid influx of wealth into the country from all 
quarters of the globe. 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 15! 

Hence the burden of taxation necessary to pay 
the interest of the British national debt is always 
much less in reality than in appearance. 

2. But independenily of this consideration, the 
national debt of Britain falls very far short of six 
hundred millions sterling. In the beginning of the 
year 1800, the notninal funded debt of Britain 
amounted to four hundred and fifty-one millions, 
six hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hun- 
dred and nineteen pounds ; but as the greater part 
of the funded debt was invested in the three per 
cent, consols, or three per cent, reduced annui- 
ties, the real value of f he w bole capital of the fund- 
ed debt did not exceed two hundred and eighty-six 
millions sterling; estimating the several funds at 
their market prices in August 1801, namely, three 
per cent, consols at sixty ; and three per cent, redu- 
ced annuities at sixty-one, &c. &c. 

The heads of the public funded debt in Britain 
on the 1st of February 1800, were as follows; 
Bank of England three per cent. 

annuities, d£ 11,686,800 

Old and new South Sea annui- 
ties, 24,065,084 

Three per cent, annuities, anno 

v 1751, 1,919,600 

Three per cent, consolidated an- 
nuities, 250,484,272 

Three per cent, reduced annui- 
ties, 69,023,876 



ISS HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

Four percent, do c£ 45,269,860 

Five per cent, do 28,125,583 

Three per cent, annuities, anno 

1726, 1,000,100 

Five per cent annuities, . . . 20,124,844 



Total novmial capital of Britain's 

public funded debt in 1800 . ^6' 451,699,919 



The following column will show the vast differ* 
ence betwen the real quantity of sterling money 
borrowed, and the 720??zm(2/ capital created by fund- 
ing the sum borrowed. In the year 1806, a loan 
of eighteen millions sterling was raised, but the 
nominal capital funded amounted to nearly thirty 
millions. 



Money borrowed 
in 180fi. 


Capital created, 
or funded. 


Interest 


Manage- 
ment. 


New sinking 
fund. 


Annual charge. 


£ 
18,000,000 


29,880,000 


896,400 


£ 

13,446 


£ 
298,800 


1,208,646 



The cause of the great difference between tlie 
real sum borrowed and the nominal capital funded, 
is thus fully explained in the third volume of the 
Edinburgh Review, p. 478. 

The public debt of Britain has been contracted 
during seasons of difficulty and embarrassment, 
when the monied interest bad a ready market for 
their capital, and the public revenue, including 
the funds allotted to the payment of the interest, 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &c, 133 

naturally labored under a greater or a less degree 
of suspicion and discredit. 

Partly in consequence of this distrust, and part- 
ly from the demand for money, the new lenders 
have always extorted much better terms than they 
could have procured at other times by relieving 
former creditors of their share in the old loans ; and 
somewhat better terms than they could have ob- 
tained, even at those times of difficulty, by pur- 
chasing shares in former loans. Thus every sum 
of money, which the public has occasion to bor- 
row during the periods of extraordinary nat'onal 
expenditure i that is to say, all the sums which the 
state ever has occasion to raise by loan, are neces- 
sarily procured at a very considerable disadvan- 
tage; the creditor receiving a premium, not only 
beyond what he would have obtained by lending 
his money at ordinary times, but even beyond 
what he could obtain by vesting his money in the 
other loans at their present discount. 

Financiers have still farther increased this disad- 
vantage by funding in those stocks, which bore the 
greatest discount, and a lower rate of interest ; and 
in order to diminish the amount of the taxes re- 
quired for paying the interest of the new debt, they 
have generally scrupled little about making a need- 
less addition to the principal. The loans made 
during the American war are now universally al- 
lowed to have been negociated on terms peculiarly 
injurious to the revenue, and it is the opinion of 



134 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

many impartial persons that during the last warj 
also, which commenced in the year 1793, the Bri- 
tish finances would have suffered less, had the bur- 
den of the loans been thrown more upon the inter- 
est, and had smaller premiums been given in the 
form of capital. 

But be this as it may, the fact is undoubted that, 
wheneverthestateborrows,a«07wzV/a/capitalofdebt 
is created much greater than the sums received and 
employed in the public service. So long as the 
nation is only burdened with the annuity payable 
upon this nominal capital, the interest at which it 
has raised the money is not exorbitant, although 
the loans may have been made at high premiums^ 
because the interest is considerably under the mar- 
ket rate when stocks are at par. But if the prin- 
cipal of the debt is to be paid at par, the nation 
loses the whole difference between the sums real- 
]y advanced and the capital created, which in every 
case must be very great. 

Thus, during the American war, and for the 
payment of the surplus expenses after the peace, 
nearly ninety-seven millions and a half were funded 
in the three and four per cents; sometimes without 
any other premium than what necessarily arose 
from the low price of stocks at the time ; sometimes 
by the grant of a premium in the form of short or 
of long annuities ; and, making no allowance on 
account of such premiums, the sum actually re- 
ceived for the capital added to the debt amounted 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 1S5 

only to seventy-five millions five hundred thousand 
pounds. 

If then this debt were redeemed at par, the nation 
would lose nearly twenty-two millions, besides 
a farther loss on money-bills, &c. funded after the 
peace. During the last war, beginning in 1793> 
the stocks having been still lower, and the three per 
cents more resorted to in proportion, the differ- 
ence between the money received and the capital 
created was still greater. 

If we suppose the average price of the three per 
cents, to be sixty (that is three per cent, which is 
higher than the average at which the operation 
of the sinking fund was carried on) the nation 
would lose about sixty-three millions by reducing 
at par the stock created in the three per cents, alone, 
previous to the fifth of April 1801, and indepen- 
dent of the imperial loan. It is certainly not es- 
timating too high the whole loss, which such an 
operation must occasion, when carried through all 
the branches of the debt now funded, if we reckon 
the difference between the par and the money ad- 
vanced at one hundred millions sterling. 

Nor would it be possible to make any deduction 
from this amount in paying the stock-holders; 
for in the first place, the constant transference of 
funded property prevents us from discovering who 
are the actual gainers of so enormous a premium ; 
and next, though we could get at these, it would 
be a direct violation of the faith, upon which they 



136 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

lent their money to the government. We take it 
for granted that the redemption is made at par ; 
for the necessary effects of the sudden payment of 
the debt mnst inevitably be to restore the par in all 
the permament funds, and to raise much higher 
than par the stock which is not redeemable as the 
life annuities, and the long and short annuities." 

How effectually this loss, which would arise to 
the British nation from the difference between the 
real sum borrowed and the nominal capital funded, 
if the public debt were to be paid at par, is pre- 
vented by the operation of the sinking funds, will 
hereafter appear. 

Now, in theyear 1 809, the real capital of Britain's 
funded debt, that is to say, the sum actually bor- 
rowed, amounts only to four hundred and fourteen 
millions sterling, and a small fraction, for which 
the interest and charges of management draw a 
yearly sum of twenty millions seven hundred 
and one thousand, too hundred and fifty-two 
pounds ; reckoning all the stock at par and the in* 
terest at five per cent. 
Thus, although the nominal debt 

of Britain is ...... £ 600,000,000 

for which the nominal interest is 

reckoned at 30,000,000 



yet the real debt of Britain is only . 414,000,000 
the annual interest of which 
amounts to 20,701,252 



BANKRU{«TCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 13^ 

making a burden of capital and of interest pressing 
upon Britain to be almost one third less than is 
generally imagined. And of this public debt, as 
we shall presently see, nearly one third part is al- 
ready actually /j^z'oJ o^ by the operation of the 
•sinkifig funds. 



CHAPTER II. 

In the year 1716 a sinking fund was first establish- 
ed in Britain, but, owing to the want of firmness or 
of capacity in the several successive adminstrations 
of that country, the money, which ought to have 
been appropriated solely to the redemption of the 
public debt, was generally diverted to some other 
object, so that at the commencement of the war in 
1741, a period of twenty-five years, no more than 
eight millions and a fraction of the national debt 
had been liquidated. 

The following table is taken from a return to an 
order of the House of Commons containing a state- 
ment of the funded debt of Britain from the year 
1730 to 1800, both inclusive. 

T 



138 



HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 



Beginning of the 


Funded debt. 


Beginning of the 


Funded debt. 


years. 




yearf. 






£ 




£ 


1750 


47,705,122 


1791 


238,231,248 


1740 


44,072,024 


1792 


238,231,248 


1750 


72 108,898 


1793 


238,231,248 


1760 


88,341,268 


1794 


244,481,248 


1765 


127,585,281 


1795 


260,157,773 


1770 


126,963,267 


1796 


285,767,670 


1775 


122,963,267 


1797 


327,671,869 


1780 


142,113,266 


1798 


394,159,046 


1785 


226,260,805 


1799 


424,159,046 


1790 


238,234,248 


1800 


451,699,919 



The following statement gives a general view 
of the British public debts, funded and unfunded, 
at particular periods, from the yeav 1700 to 1786, 
together vvith the operation of the sinking fund, 
established in the year 17 16, during that time. 



Tears. 


Remarks. 


Amount of debt. 


Annual interest. 


1700 


At the commence- 








ment of the 18th 








century, the fund- 




f 




ed and unfunded 








debts amounted 


£ 


£ 




to, ... . 


16.394,700 


1,109,132 


1714 


Do 


55,681,076 


2,811,904 


1722 


Do 


55,282,987 




1728 


Do. .... . 


51,008,431 


2,137,782 


1739 


Do 


46,954,623 


1,964,025 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 



139 



Years. 


Remarks. 


Amount of debt. 


Annual interest. 




In seventeen years 


£ 


£ 




of profound peace 








only £ 8,328,354, 








of the capital paid 








off. 






1748 


After nine years of 








war the debt was 


78,293,303 


3,061,004 


1755 


Before the com- 
mencement of a 








new war, . . 


74,571,840 


2,516,719 




In seven years of 








peace only four 








million pounds of 








debt paid off. 






1763 


After seven years of 








war the debt was 


139,561,806 


4,840,821 


770 


After seven years of 
peace, it was, (se- 
ven millions being- 








paid off,) . . 


135,506,500 




1775 


In these four years 
about four mil- 
lions paid off, and 








the debt was, . 


129,146,322 




1783 


After the American 
war of 7 years, the 








debt was, . . 


262,318,198 




786 


From an authentic 
list laid before the 
British Parlia- 
ment, the debt 








was, . . . 


266,725,097 





140 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

It was reserved for the wisdom and energy of the 
late Mr. Pitt to place the finances of Britain on a 
solid and indestructible basis. 

The interest of the debt contracted in the Ameri- 
can war, and funds at the end of it, was „£ 4,8(54,000. 
The increase of revenue in the year ending Christ- 
mas 1784, nine months after the peace, was only 
£ 1,755,000 above that of the year 1774, leaving a 
deficiency of £ 3,108,000, less than what was re- 
quisite to meet the increased expenditure occa- 
sioned by the interest on the debt incurred du- 
ring the war. The floating debt in 1784 was 
JC 27,000,000, exclusive of loyalists' debentures, 
amounting to jO 2,000,000. 

The British funds were also in a state of the ut- 
most depression j thp three per cents, which on the 
peace of 1763, rose to jO 95, never rose higher af- 
ter the peace of 1783 than £ 69, and had fallen in 
the beginning of 1784 to £ 56. 

Mr. Pitt, notwithstanding all these disadvanta- 
ges and difficulties, funded the floating debt in the 
years 1784 and 1785; he imposed new taxes, which, 
while they were productive tp the public treasury, 
did not affect the sources of national industry, nor 
press upon those classes of the community by whom 
that industry is supported; he was most success- 
fully vigilant in preventing frauds in the col- 
lection of the old revenue; and made that collection 
more simple and less expensive, more productive 
to the state, and less embarrassing to the trader. 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 14 i 

The consequence of these measures was, that 
in 1792, the revenue was increased (exclusively of 
taxes to the extent of c£ 800,000 a year, imposed 
to defray the expenses of the Spanish armament in 
1791) upwards of ^4,000,000, of which something 
less than one million arose from new taxes and an 
increase derived from the consolidation of the cus- 
toms. 

But the measure, which above all others tended 
to give credit and vigor to Britain's system of fi- 
nance was the appropriation, in the year 1786, 
of an annual million to the extinction of the na- 
tional debt. This is the basis of what is now called 
the Old Sinking Fund. This measure was calcu- 
lated to give the firmest confidence in the stabi- 
lity of the national funds. The act was guarded 
by every provision that could be devised to ensure 
a fidelity in the execution equal to the wisdom 
and extent of the design; and in its detail so con- 
trived as regularly to afford to the Parliament and 
to the public the clearest and most distinct view of 
its progressive operation. 

This old sinking fund, established in the year 
1786, had redeemed in 1792, a period of six years, 
eight millions, and two hundred thousand pounds 
of the capital of the national debt. 

To this yearly appropriation of a million, the 
additional sum of two hundred thousand pounds 
annually was voted by the Parliament in the year 
1792; making the sum of one million two hun- 



14*8J HINTS OiN THE NATIONAL 

dred thousand pounds to be the basis of the annual 
income of the old sinking fund. 

In the year 1792, also, on the suggestion of the 
late Mr. Fox, readily adopted by Mr. Pitt, an- 
other act of the British Parliament was passed, pro- 
viding that on allfutnre loans (in addition to the tax- 
es to be imposed for paying the interest on these 
loans) a surplus o^ one per cent, per annum on the 
capital created, should be raised for the redemption 
of that capital. This is the basis of the annual in- 
come of what is now called the New Sinking 
Fund. 

Both these sinking funds are perpetually in- 
creasing their annual income by the interest of all 
the capital of the national debt, which they respec- 
tively redeem, and also by that of the annuities, 
as they expire. Thus, say the present yearly in- 
come of the old sinking fund is three millions ster- 
ling ; by next year we must add to that income 
the interest of all the capital of debt which these 
three millions will redeem ; call it one hundred and 
fifty thousand pounds, reckoning the interest at 
five per cent, and the income of the old sinking 
fund will next year be three millions one hundred 
and fifty thousand pounds, and fio on every year 
will its income progressively increase with a con- 
tinually augmented velocity and force. The same 
progress takes place, in the perpetually increasing 
annual income of the new .^inking fund. 

But the annual income of the old sinking fund 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &e. 145 

IS limited to a maximum of four millious two hun- 
dred thousand pounds, beyond which sum it is not 
suffered to accumulate. The yearly excess of its 
income above four millions two hundred thousand 
pounds is at the disposal of the British Parliament 
either to be applied to the redemption of the pub- 
lic debt incurred since the year 1792, or to the 
reduction of taxes annually to the amount of such 
excess. The new sinking fund has no limitation 
of a maximum to fetter its progress; its annual in- 
come might go on progressively increasing to any 
amount, which the discretion of the British Parlia- 
ment shall allow. 

The establishment of the new sinking fund is 
a measure of the utmost importance to the stabili- 
ty of British credit. If its infallible operation were 
generally understood, all fears of British bank- 
ruptcy would vanish from the minds of the most 
timid, and all doubts would be removed from the 
scepticism of the most incredulous. 

In point of fact, the new sinking fund of Bri- 
tain has reduced every debt to an annuity, deter- 
minable at a period more or less distant, accord- 
ing to the price of stocks in the interval of its ope- 
ration ; of which annuity a large proportion of the 
persons existing at the time of the creation of the 
debt, must, in the ordinary course of human na- 
ture, live to see the end. With every additional 
burden, which might be vulgarly supposed to 
weaken the security of the public creditor, is thus 



144 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

interwoven a provision for establishing that securi- 
ty by confirming within certain limits the extent to 
which any given debt can be accumulated ; and 
also by ascertaining the redemption of the whole 
debt, whatever may be its amount, within a given 
period from its creation. 

For as every fresh loan is accompanied with a 
provision in the sinking fund, to redeem its whole 
amount within a period of time determined by 
the existing prices of the stocks ; every fresh portion 
of public debt becomes an annuity, which is sure to 
expire at the termination of a given number of 
years. And as this number of years cannot well, 
under any supposable circumstances exceed forty, 
a great portion of the people who see the begining, 
will also live to see the end of such a portion of the 
public debt. 

Every fresh burden of debt apparently weakens 
the security of the stock-holder, or public creditor, 
by increasing the difficulty of raising an annual 
revenue in the form of taxes for the purpose of 
paying the interest upon the public debt. But 
the new sinking fund in reality strengthens the 
security of the stock-holders, by preventing the too 
great accumulation of the aggregate debt which 
is perpetually diminished by the continual en- 
croachments of that sinking fund upon the capital 
of the debt, and also by the certainty which it es- 
tablishes of redeeming each separate portion of 
the public debt within a certain period from the 
time of its creation. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, Sec. 



145 



The rapid and effectual operation of the old 
and new sinking funds to discharge the national 
debt of Britain, will appear from the following 
statement : 



Years. 


Remarks. 


Amount of debt. 


Annual interest. 






£ 


£ 




By the report of 






1793 


the Select Com- 
mimittee on Fi- 
nances, the debt 








was 


247,156,670 


10,332,435 




In 7 years the 
sinking funds had 








redeemed jC 19, 








600,000 of the 








capital of the 








debt. 


' 






Amount of the 








debt, including 






1800 


upwards of 12 


■ 






millions unfun- 








ded. 


463,878,034 


^20,186,507 



From this sum of £463,878,034, 

Deduct as charged on account 

for Ireland 15,315,000 

And as provided by the income- 
tax, the sum of . . . . . 56,000,000 



Total 



£71,315,000 



146 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

And there will remain of per- 
manent debt charged on Biit- 
ain in the year 1800 .. . £ 379,525,746 
By the operation of the sinking funds from ihe 
year 1786, to the opening of the Budt^et 18th of 
February, 1801, a portion of the caoital of ''the 
national debt had been redeemed, to tlie amount 

of ^52 000,000 

To which add the sum redeemed 

by the land-tax, 18 000,000 



Total, £ 70,000,000 



The sum annually applicable to 
the reduction of the national 
debt, or, in other words, the 
yearly income of the sinking 
funds in 1800, amounted to £5,233,000 



The following is a statement of the annual in- 
come arising from the old and new sinking funds 
on 1 st of May, 1 806 : 



Old Sinking Fund. 



£ s. d. 
Annual million, 26, Geo. 3d. 1,000,000 
Annual additional issue from 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. Hi 

1792, perpetuated by 42d. £ s, d. 

Geo. 3(1 200,000 

Annuities 1777 expired . . 25,000 

Annuities 1796 — 1797 ex- 
pired 54,880 14 6 

Unclaimed and expired annu- 
ities on lives 50,308 5 7 

Annual interest on X' '^6,3 17- 
489, the capital redeemed 
May 1st, 1806, at three 
per cent 1,689,524 13 4 

Do. on ^2,617,400 at four 

per cent 104,696 

Do. on £ 142,000 at five 

per cent 7,000 



Total income of the old 
sinking fund in the 
year 1806 .... 3,131,509 13 5 



New Sinking Fund. 



£ s. d. 

One per cent, per annum, on 

account of loans raised 

from 1793 to 1806, both 

inclusive 3,494,541 6 $ 

Annual interest on o£ 44,989- 

533s the capital redeemed 



148 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

May 1st, 1806, at three £ s. d. 

per cent 1,349,685, 19 9 



Total annual income of the 

new sinking fund in the 

year 1806 .... 4,844,227 6 3 
Ditto of the old sinking 

fund in the year 1806 3,131,509 13 5 



Annual income of both old 
and new sinking funds in 
1806 7,975,736 \9 8 



Imperial. 



£ 



One per cent, per annum, 
on account of loan 

1797 36,693 

Annual interest on £ 673, 
126, the capital redeem- 
ed May 1st 1806, at 

three per cent. . . . 20,193 15 7 

Total annual income of 

the Imperial . . . 56,876 15 7 
of old sink- 
ing fund . . . 3,131.509 13 o 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 149 

Total annual income of £ s. d. 

new sinking fund . . 4,844,227 6 3 



Annual income of all the 

sinking funds . . . 8,032,623 15 3 



Capital of the national 
debt paid off by the old 
sinking fund . . . 59,076,000 

by the Imperial 673,000 o 

by the new sink- 
ing fund 44,989,000 



Total of the capi- 
tal paid off . 104,738,000 
Expense of Spanish arma- 
ment in 1791, by de- 
benture paid off . . . 3,133,000 
Debentures granted to loy- 
alists in America paid 
off 2,946,000 



Total of national 

debt liquidated 110,817,000 
From which deduct debt 
created by Tontine in 
1789, and Navy-bills 

funded 1,458,000 

And the whole capital of 
British national debt re- 
deemed in 1 806 is . . 109,359,000 



ISO MINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

By the operation of these sinking funds, with- 
out any farther intervention of the parliament, 
the old sinking fund, established in 1786, must at- 
tain its maximum, namely an annual income of 
four millions two hundred thousand pounds, at 
the very farthest period by the beginning of 
1811, and probably by the month of February^ 
18^9. 

And taking the three per cents, on an average 
to be at JO 85, which is perhaps the fairest medi- 
um to take, considering the probable rapid rise 
of the British funds on a return of peace, owing 
to the immense purchases which will then be made 
from the accumulation of the sinking funds; and 
also considering how little the average is likely to 
be affected by the low price of stocks in the early 
part of the period; the capital of the old debt, 
incurred before the year 1 79^, amounting to about 
£ 240,000,000, will be completely redeemed in 
January 1846. 

If the same ])rice of the three per cents be assumed 
in computing the period of the redemption of the 
new debt, created since the year l792,the three per 
cents will be redeemed in less than thirty-nine years 
and a half from the time of making each loan. At 
the price of ^3^, which the funds bore in 1799, the 
three per cents, created by new loans, would be 
redeemed in twenty-three years and a quarter from 
the time each loan was made. 

The follovk'ing table will explain the several 
dates when the old sinking fund shall have increa- 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 



151 



^ed to its greatest yearly amount, namely, four 
millions a year, to which add the tuo hundred 
thousand pounds annually voted by the Parlia- 
ment, making together an annual income of four 
millions two hundred thousand pounds; and also 
the dates when the whole amount of the debt in- 
curred before the year 1793 will be redeemed by 
the operation of the old sinking fund, according to 
the several average prices at which the three per 
cents may hereafter be purchased. 



Average prices of the 
three per cent, fuuds from 
1st Feb. 1799. 


Dates when tlie old sinking! Dates when the whole of the 
fund will have jnTeased to debt incurred bt fore the year 
four niillion pounds per ann. 1793, will be cancelled, 
its greatest lawiul amount. '• 


55 


November 


1808jOctober 


18;32 


60 


August 


1809|Ociober 


1835 


65 


April 


1810 


September 


1838 


70 


February 


1811 


August, 


1841 


15 


February 


1808 


June 


1842 


80 


February 


1808 April 


1844 


85 


February 


]808| January 


1846 


90 


February 


ISOSJJanuary 


1848 


100 


February 


1808; May 


1852 



It is obvious that in some cases the sinking fund 
will increase to its greatest amount sooner with 
the stocks at a high than a lower price, by the re- 
duction of the five per cents, or four per cents. 

The excess above £, 4,200,000, in the first year 
after the old sinking fund shall attain its maxi- 



152 



HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 



mum, according to the different prices of stocks, 
will be 

At 75 £ 23,000 

80 203,300 

85 376,800 

90 488,400 

.100 643,900 

The annexed table will show the several periods 
of time in which each capital of public debt, bear- 
ing interest at 3, 4, or 5 per cent, per ann. repect- 
ivelj, will be redeemed by an annual fund of one 
per cent, applied by quarterly issues, in purcha- 
sing the said capitals at the several average prices 
at which the 3 per cent, funds maybe redeemed. 
This table shews the time in which the new sink- 
ing fund redeems the capital created, according 
to the different average prices of the stocks. 



Average pri- 
ces of 3 per 
cent, funds. 


Periods of redeeming by a sinking of one per cent, per annum 
quarterly payments, a capital ot debt bearing interest. 


issued by 


At 3 per cent, per ann. 


At 4 per cent, per ann. 


At 5 per cent 


per ann. 




Years. Months. 


Years. Months. 


Years. 


Months. 


50 


23 . . 31 


^27 . . Oi 


30 . 


. 1 


55 


25 . 


. 7 


29 . . 81 


33 . 


. Of 


60 


27 . 


. lof 


32 . . 4| 


36' . 


3 

4 


Q5 


30 . 


2r- 


35 . . Of 


39 . 


• * 


70 


32 . 


. H 


37 . . 9 


42 . 


1 
4 


75 


34 . 


10 


40 . . 51 


45 . 


1 

4 


80 


37 . 


H 


43 . . U 


48 . 





85 


39 . . 


51 


45 . . 9^ 


50 , 


llf 


9,0 


41 . , 


^\ 


48 .. 5| 


53 . 


llf 


95 


44 . . 


^% 


51 , . 2 


56 , 


lU 


100 


46 . . 


^\ 


53 . . 101 


59 . 


11^ 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 



153 



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154 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

As the dividends due on such parts of the old 
debt as shall be paid off after the sinking fund 
has attained its maximum, and the annuities which 
shall afterwards fall in, will be at the disposal of the 
British Parliament, either to apply towards the li- 
quidation of the new debt, incurred since the year 
179^, or to the repealing of taxes annually to an 
amount equal to such dividends, and to the 
yearly income of such annuities ; either the new 
debt will be more speedily cancelled than could be 
effected by the operation of the new sinking fund 
alone, or an annual reduction of taxes in Britain 
to a considerable amount cannot be delayed lon- 
ger than the year 1811. 

The table on page 153, exhibits at one view 
the state of Britain's funded debt, long and 
short annuities, together with the progress of the 
sinking funds from January 1786 to January 1800, 
a period of fourteen years, and annual charges, in- 
cluding the sums applicable to the reduction of 
the debt. 

It only now remains to state the mode in which 
the Sinking funds operate in liquidating the na- 
tional debt. 

The basis of the old sinking fund, as before ob- 
served, is the annual appropriation of one million, 
by an act of the British Parliament passed in 1786, 
and an aftergrant of the yearly sum of two hun- 
dred thousand pounds in 1792, making together an 
annual inconie oi £, 1,200,000, this income is con 
tinually increasing by an addition of the yearly in- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 155 

terest of all the capital of the public debt, which it 
from time to time redeems, and by the annuities 
which fall in or expire; but its income is restricted 
to a maximum, amounting to four millions two hun- 
dred thousand pounds per annum, beyond which 
it is not suffered to accumulate. 

The foundation of the new sinking fund is the 
grant made by the British Parliament in 179*2 of 
one per cent, per annum on the capital of every fu- 
ture loan, to be issued in quarterly payments. The 
annual income thus created is continually aug- 
mented by the yearly interest of all the capital 
of the debt incurred since 1793, which it redeems; 
and this process of augmentation goes on without 
any restriction, as no maximum is applied to cur- 
tail the boundaries of its incessantly increasing re- 
venue. 

The British Parliament sends certain commis- 
sioners into the stock exchange in London, to buy 
up a given portion of the public debt, as the annual 
income of the sinking funds becomes due. Say the 
government purchases a million of stock ; from 
that moment this stock becomes fixed ; it floats for 
sale no longer in the market ; but the British gov- 
ernment itself is a stock-holder to that amount and 
consequently receives, in the capacity of a public 
creditor, the existing rate of interest upon it accor- 
ding to the nature of the stocks, namely, three per 
cent, from the three per cents, four per cent, from 
the four per cents. &c. making the annual interest 



15^ HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

amount to thirty or forty thousand pounds ster- 
ling. 

By this operation a capital, to the whole amount 
of the purchase-money of this million of stock, is 
let loose from its investment in the public funds, to 
find its way \nto the channels of agriculture, com- 
merce, or manufactures, according to the will of 
the late public creditors who have transfered their 
share of stock to the government ; and thus to put 
in motion a great mass of productive industry in 
Britain. 

It is however to be especially kept in mind that 
this letting loose of capital applies only to the indi- 
•vidual stoc\i-\io\dGvs who transfer their share of the 
public credit to the government for an equitable 
purchase-money ; and that, in point of fact, as re- 
lates to the community^ no capital is let loose, as 
we shall presently have occasion to notice. The 
whole transaction being a mere transfer or shifting 
of capital from one hand to another. 

The government proceeds in this manner until 
it has displaced, or transferred the whole, or a part 
of the national debt from the individual public 
creditors to itself ; say to the amount of one hun- 
dred millions; all which it lets loose, as far as the 
individual stock-holders are concerned, to find its 
way into other channels of employment. Suppose 
that the government then says "I will pay off 
these hundred millions of debt," it will then only 
have to remit, or take off from the people taxes 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. I5T 

to the amount of the interest, which is annually 
paid upon these hundred millions; for it has alrea- 
dy redeemed^ or liquidated the capital of the nation- 
al debt, to the amount of one hundred millions, by 
its gradual purchases of stock from the individual 
public creditors. 

So that the government, first, redeems the capi- 
tal of the funded debt, by transfering on purchase, 
out of the annual proceeds of the sinking funds, 
a portion of the public stock from the individual 
public creditors to itself ; — and then, secondly, 
remits the interest which that capital bears, and 
which is now paid to itself as the public creditor, 
whenever it sees fit, by taking off taxes to the 
amount of that interest. 

The government buys up portions of the public 
debt to the amount of nearly a million sterling a 
month ; and is now a public creditor, or stock-hol- 
der to the amount oi one hundred a?id eighty millions ; 
that is to say, has redeemed or paid off one hun- 
dred and eighty millions of the capital of the na- 
tional debt, which is nearly a third part of its whole 
bulk. 

The yearly interest upon these hundred and 
eighty millions is not applied to defray the annual 
expenditure of the government, but goes to swell 
the yearly income of the sinking fund, and thus 
farther to diminish the amount of the national debt 
by continual purchases of fresh portions of its ca- 
pital. 



tSB HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

It is no valid objection to this statement to say 
that Britain is perpetually borrowing money, and 
thus adding to the vast load of her national debt 
For in the first place, the redeeming power and 
jprogressrve force of the sinking funds to liquidate, 
far outweigh the tendency of new loans to aug- 
ment the public debt ; and secondly tiie one per 
cent, per annum on the capital of every sum bor- 
rowed ensures the gradual redemption of the whole 
debt, at periods determinable according to the 
prices of the stocks, during the operation of the 
iiew sinking fund. 

The yearly taxes, permanent and temporary, in 
Britain amount to sixty millions sterling; her war 
expenditure is computed to average from sixty- 
five to seventy millions annually. But war cannot 
last for ever ; and at the return of peace the yearly 
expenses of the British government will be redu- 
ced at least one third ; say down to forty millions, 
including the twenty millions, which are annually 
paid as interest for the public debt. So that in time 
of peace there will be no occasion for Britain to 
borrow any money ; and the sinking funds go on 
with a force and rapidity augmenting yearly to- 
wards the redemption of the whole capital of the 
funded debt. 

But if the war should continue for half a centn- 
ry to come, the progressive operations of the sink- 
ing funds would liquidate the national debt faster 
than the new loans could augment it. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 159 

The government might borrow upon an ave- 
rage, during the war, eight millions annually; a 
sum which now, in 1809, is not nearly equal to 
the yearly income of the sinking funds ; and this 
yearly income is annually augmented by the inter- 
est of all the capital of the public debt, which it 
redeems. The income now, in September 1809, 
may be thus stated in round numbers : 

Old Sulking Fund. 

£ 

Annual million, 26 Geo. Sd 1,000,000 

Annual additional issue from 

1792, perpetuated by 42d. 

Geo. 3d 200,000 

Annuities unclaimed, expired, 

&c 400,000 

Annual interest on £, 80,000, 

000 of capital redeemed at 

three per cent S,4O0,00Q 

Annual interest on „£ 3,000,000 

of capital redeemed at four 

percent 120,000 

Annual interest on £ 1,600,000 

of capital redeemed at five 

percent 80,000 



Total annual income of 
the old sinking fund be- 
ing its legal maximum £ 4,200,000 



160 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

New Sinking Fund, 



-ofbotholdand 



£ 



One per cent, per annum on ac- 
count of loans raised from 
1793 to 1809, both inclusive 4,000,000 

Annual interest on £ 100,000, 
000, of capital redeemed at 
three per cent 3,000,000 



Total annual income of the 
new sinking fund in 

1809 067,000,000 

of the old sink- 
ing fund ..... 4,200,000 



new sinking funds . . X' 11,200,000 



Capital of debt paid off by the 

old sinking fund .... £ 84,600,000 
' by the new sinking 

fund -. . 100,000,000 



Total capital of national 
debt paid off in 1809 • £ 184,600,000 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 1^1 

When we consider the vast progressive force of 
the new sinking fund, whose operations are not re- 
strained by any maximum, we need be UJ<derno 
alarm as to the ability of Britain to b^ar her bur- 
den of annual expenditure, and also to redeem 
the whole capital of her public debt. In the 
space of ten years, by the year 1820, the annual in- 
come of the sinking funds, if steadily applied to 
their onlj/ legitimate object, the redemption of the 
national debt, will amount to more than twentij mil- 
lions sterling ; and will go on annually augmenting 
with enormous rapidity ; unless indeed the gov- 
ernment of Britain shall choose to diminish the 
rate of their increase by a yearly remission of tax- 
es, to the amount, or nearly to the amount of the 
interest on the stock-capital which it from time to 
time purchases. 

By the remission of taxes to the whole amount 
of the interest payable on the stock which the 
British government holds in the public funds, the 
income of the old sinking fund may be reduced to 
its annual appropriation of one million two hun- 
dred thousand pounds j and the 3^early income of 
the new sinking fund may be diminished to the 
mere amount of the one per cent, upon all the 
capital of debt created since the year 1793. For 
the two sinking funds have no other means of 
augmenting their yearly revenue than by receiv- 
ing the interest payable upon all the funded stock 
which they purchase. 

Y 



162 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

But it would appear to be the more sound pol- 
icy to push forward the operations of the sinking 
funds by a rapid increase of their annual income, 
and gradually and slowly to remit some of the 
most oppressive and least productive taxes ; in 
order that a large portion of the national debt 
may be paid off, and its bulk reduced to a tole- 
rable and convenient size. 

The vast progressive force of the new sinking 
fund may appear from the following statement. 

Ill consequence of the improved and more pro- 
ductive system of taxation yielding a much larger 
annual revenue to Britain than heretofore, the fu- 
ture loans will be neither so frequent nor so large 
as those iii times past have been. During the first 
ten years of the period in question, namely, from 
1792 to 1802, the loans upon an average were 
much greater in amount than they have been from 
1802 to 180J. We shall, however, state the whole 
sum borrowed, and take the annual average of tlie 
whole from the year 1792 to 1809> a period of se- 
venteen years. 

Four hundred millions of nominal capital of 
debt have been created in these seventeen years, 
making an annual average of debt incurred to the 
amount of tw^enty-three millions and a fraction. 
The new sinking fund started with the commence- 
ment of this debt in the year 1793, with an annual 
income of only one per cent, upon all the capital 
created; say two hundred and thirty thousand 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. l6S 

pounds for the first year, taking the debt incur- 
red that year at twenty-three millions. 

From such small beginnings, the new sinking 
fund continually adding to its income oi one per 
cent, annually upon all the capital borrosved, the 
yearly interest upon all the capital redeemed, has, 
in the space of seventeen years, encroached upon 
the whole of the debt so far as to reduce one fourth 
of its bulk, and has made its own income nearly 
equal to the amount of the yearly interest upon all 
the yet unredeemed portion of the public debt. 

It is also to be particularly noted that the ope- 
rations of the new sinking fund are comparatively 
slow and feeble in the first years of its progress ; 
and that in proportion to its advancement in age 
it rapidly swells the amount of its income by 
the annual addition of the interest upon all the 
enormous sums of the capital of the funded debt, 
which it from time to time redeems. 

£ 

Nominal debt created from 

1792 to 1809 400,000,000 

Annual interest of that debt 

at three per cent. . . . 12,000,000 

Annual income of the New Sinking Fund in 1809. 

One per cent, per annum, on 
all the capital of debt crea- 



164 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

£ 
ted from 1792 to 1809 . • 4,000,00(h 

Annual interest upon £ 100,- 
000,000 of capital of that 
debt redeemed at three per 
cent 3,000,000 



Total annual income of 
new sinking fund in 
1809 7,000,000 



The whole nominal debt of 

Britain created since 1792 400,000,000 

Deduct as redeemed by the 

new sinking fund . . . 100,000,000 



And there remains of capital 

of public debt .... 300,000,000 



The whole annual interest of 

the debt since 1792 . . . 1,2,000,000 

Deduct the interest on jO 1 00,- 

000,000 redeemed by the 

new sinking fund . . . o,000,000 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 



165 



And there remains of yearly 
interest on the yet unre- 
deemed portion of the debt 



£ 9,000,000 



So that the annual income of the nevv sinking 
fund, now in 1809, is only two millions less than 
the whole yearly interest of all the unredeemed 
portion of the public debt. In less than ten years 
from this time, namely by the year 1819, it will be 
more than double the amount of that interest ; be- 
cause its income is every year rapidly increasing 
by that very process which is annually diminishing 
the capital, and consequently the interest, of the 
yet unliquidated part of the national debt. 

The following table will show how rapidly the 
progressive force of the new sinking fund gains 
upon the accumulation of the public debt, howe- 
ver enormous that accumulation be. 



Years. 


Capita] of debt. 


Income of new sinking fund. 


Proportion of the income 
of new sinking fund to the 
whole capital of debt. 




£ 


£ 


s 


d 




1793 


23,000,000 


230,000 


- 


- 


■iVoth part. 


1798 


138,000,000 


1 ,533,333 


6 


8 


^th part. 


1803 


253,000,000 


3,373,333 


6 


8 


yVtli part. 


1008' 400,000,000 


7,000,000 


- 


- 


iVth part. 



Thus in seventeen years, although so enormous 
a capital of debt as that of four hundred millions 
was created, yet the income of the new sinking 



160 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

fund lias gained upon it, from the proportion of a 
one hundreth part of the whole debt to that of one 
^fifty-seventh of the whole debt ; and the progressive 
force of this income is increasing in rapidity every 
year, so that every new accumulation of debt will 
be swept away with still greater facility and speed 
than has ever hitherto been accomplished. 

It is likewise to be especially noticed that the 
income of the new sinking fnnd is in sterlingy 
whereas the capital of the debt \s funded stocky al- 
most the whole of which is vested in the three per 
cents, whence we may fairly cut away at least 
one fourth, in order to reduce it to sterling ; and 
then the capital of debt being only three hundred 
millions, and the annual income of" the new sink- 
ing fund being seven millions, the proportion of 
the yearly income applied to the reduction of the 
debt is about one forty third instead of one fifty" 
seventh of its whole bulk. 



CHAPTER III. 



I AM well aware that one of the chief reasons, 
which induced the framers of the old sinking fund, 
established in 1786, to clog and cripple its opera- 
tion by the imposition of a maximum, was partly 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 16? 

the unfounrled and mistaken notion that the sums 
of capital-stock bought up by the commissioners, 
would let loose so much capital upon the public as 
to reduce the value, and injure the circulation of 
money throughout the empire ; and partly the fear 
lest its too vast progressive increase might derange 
the order of prices in the country. 

And the Earl of Lauderdale even ventures to 
exceed this errors for in his" Inquiry into the na- 
ture and origin of public wealth, and into the 
means and causes of its increase," he roundly as- 
serts that the very principle of the sinking funds 
is false, and ridicules the whole project of paying 
off the British national debt as chimerical. The 
substance of his argument, to prove that the late 
Mr. Pitt and some others of the ablest and best 
financiers whom the world ever saw, were altoge- 
ther in the dark as to this important point, is as 
follows. 

His lordship says, that when the stock-holder 
receives his capital from the British government, 
who buys up his stock with the proceeds of the 
sinking funds, he must invest it again somewhere 
for the purpose of producing an income, or he must 
spend the capital and ruin himself The very 
large sums which would thus be repaid, would in- 
increase the circulating capital so much as to ren- 
der it impossible to find new channels of emplo}-- 
ment for all the capital thus released. The pub- 
lic creditor not having the means of investing the 



168 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

money which he thus receives from the govern- 
ment in payment for his funded stock, so as to 
produce an income; and not choosing to spend 
the capital, the demand for commodities to the ex- 
tent of tiie sum paid off must cease. Wljence the 
Earl of Lauderdale infers that before the sinking 
funds can redeem one hundred millions of debt, 
three hundred millions of the real wealth of the 
country must be extinguished. 

But his lordship appears to have overlooked 
some very material circumstances which go to 
prove the entire fallacy of his conclusion, that the 
sinking funds, by paying off the whole or a part 
of the national debt, increase the floating capital 
of the community. 

The fairest and the most comprehensive view of 
the funding system and its invaluable attendants, 
the sinking funds, which I have ever seen, is to be 
found in the Edinburgh Reviews of Bishop Wat- 
son's intended speech in the British House of Lords 
on the national debt of Britain, in the year 1803, 
3d vol. Ed. Review, p. 468; of Lord Lauderdale's 
book on Public Wealth; 4th vol. Ed. Rev. p. 443 j 
of Arthur O'Connor's pamphlet on the Present 
State of Great Britain in the year 1804, 5th vol. 
Ed. Rev. p. 104; and of Lord Henry Petty 's Plan 
of Finance in 1807, 10th vol. 7*2. From these Re- 
views I shall extract such facts and arguments as 
go to prove conclusively the policij and ivisdom of 
)the funding system, and the efficacy of the sinking 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 169 

funds. The observations of my own which I shall 
have occasion now and then to introduce will be 
so very few, and so entirely founded on the great 
general principles of finance laid down in the Ed- 
inburgh Review, that I consider myself as altoge- 
ther indebted to that unrivalled periodical work 
for the following explanation of a very important 
part of the British financial system. 

1. The fact is directly against the Earl of Lau- 
derdale's position, that the paying off the national 
debt so floods Britain with a surplus capital, as in a 
great measure to extinguish the national wealth 
by constantly throwing a large portion of the ca- 
pital of the community out of employment. For 
although one hundred and eighty millions of the 
capital of the funded debt have been actually re- 
deemed, yet the capital, thus let loose, or created, 
as Lord Lauderdale calls it, but which in reality is 
only transferred or shifted from one portion of the 
community to another, has not so overflowed the 
country as to find no channel of employment. 

For the price of the British stocks has not risen 
very high in consequence of these vast purchases of 
the capital of the funded debt by the government. 
An event which must inevitably have taken place 
if the capital redeemed could find no channel of 
employment; because then the private capitalists, 
not being able to raise any income upon their capi- 
tal, would incessantly bid against the government 
for the purchase of funded stocky and thus the mu- 

z 



170 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

tual competition of the government and of wealthy 
individuals would force up the price of stocks to 
such a height as to render the operation of the 
sinking funds utterly weak and insignificant; 
whereas, now, their operation is very rapid and 
powerful. — But, 

2dly. The redemption of the national debt by 
the operation of the sinking funds cannot flood Bri- 
tain with a redundant capital. The British gov- 
ernment has no private purse, no other means of 
obtaining money than by collecting it from the 
public in the shape of taxes, whence all the capi- 
tal which it pays to the public creditors for their 
respective shares of funded stock is only dt transfer 
of so much capital from the community at large 
amongst whom it lay floating, until the govern* 
ment drew it unto itself by taxation, to certain in- 
dividuals late stock-holders, who may either send 
it into the same channels of employment which it 
occupied before it was embodied into taxes ; or 
may use it in some other occupations which are 
laid open by the very circumstance of subtracting 
so much capital from the public in the form of taxes. 

This must be the case, unless we choose to as- 
sert that all the channels of British trade, manu- 
factures, and agriculture, both domestic and co- 
lonial, are absolutely full of as much capital or 
stock as they can receive, which every child 
knows not to be true. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 171 

The redemption of the national debt then cannot 
overflow Britain with useless capital, since all 
the capital which is paid off' by the operation of 
the sinking funds must have previously existed* 
in the form of revenue. The state must have re- 
ceived it in taxes upon individuals who had pro- 
duced it as profit from time to time. The whole 
income of the sinking funds, namely, the annual 
appropriation of one million two hundred thousand 
pounds for the old sinking fund, and the annual 
appropriation of one per cent, upon all the capital 
of loans raised since the year 1792, for the new 
sinking fund ; together with the interest of all the 
capital of funded debt which both the sinking 
funds respectively redeem, is raised in the shape 
of taxes from the community, and is applied to the 
purchase of funded stock from the individual pub- 
lic creditors. 

The capital therefore is not " let loose or createdr 
as far as the public is concerned, which Lord Lau- 
derdale asserts ; it is only transferred^ it would have 
actually existed in the community although it had 
never passed through the hands of the govern- 
ment, and part of it has been necessarily expen- 
ded as revenue by the managers of the funds, which 
would have remained in the hands of the producers 
had there been no impost levied. 

In a word the whole operation is simply this : — 
a given quantity of capital is drawn from the na- 
tion at large in the form of taxes ; and this same 



172 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

capital is returned by the govenment to the nation 
in the shape of purchase of stock. And the whole 
effect of this transfer of the same capital is, that 
first the government draws it from a vast number 
of hands spread over the community -, and second- 
ly, that government returns it into the hands of a 
/e-windividuals, who sell their respective shares of 
the public stock. 

3dly. The real operation of the British sink- 
ing funds is, with a pace gradually accelerated, to 
encroach upon the capital, of the national debt; 
and scarcely influencing the price of stocks, silently 
to transfer the property from the individual public 
creditors to the government. 

This transference is made in small portions at 
different times ; so that the lowest fund, or the fund 
which is lowest in proportion to its profits, may al- 
ways be chosen. During a long war a vast portion 
of the debt may be purchased by the commissioners 
^\. a lozoer x^ie than that at which it is funded; 
whence, while the nation is borrowing at a disad- 
vantage, it is, in the same degree, reaping a bene- 
fit from discharging former incumbrances at little 
cost. 

After a very great part of the funded stock has 
been purchased by the commissioners, the remain- 
der will indeed rise higher than it would have done 
if the same stock had continued in the possesion 
of men who often brought it into the market. But 
the change is so slow that a number of channels 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 173 

how empty must be filled, before the difTicuIty of 
obtaining employment for capital shall occasion a 
glut in the stock-market. 

No doubt, if a resolution to pay off the national 
debt speedily, say in four years, were to be sud- 
denly formed, three per cents being at sixty, every 
proprietor must know that by holding out he 
would gain forty per cent, in consequence of the 
stocks rising up to par, while he receives in the 
mean time five per cent, of interest. But when 
the payment is effected by a slow transference to 
the sinking funds, proprietors know that they can- 
not force their stock upon the commissioners at par. 
In the case above assumed, namely that off pay- 
ing the whole debt in four years, monied men will 
eagerly strive to get a share of the funds before 
they are near par, knowing that by this purchase 
their gain is sure. But in the case of the gradual 
operation of the sinking funds they may gain one 
or two per cent, and then be obliged to sell again 
before the commissioners choose to pay more. 

It is probable then that the effect of the sinking 
funds will be to displace gradually a part of the 
capital now vested in the national loans, and to re- 
store it to the commerce and agriculture of the coun- 
try, while the annuitants, who cannot engage in 
trade, and are anxious for the best security, being 
the last to sell out, will receive the highest price, 
that is the par of all the respective stocks, at 
which price the government is entitled to pay ofT 



174 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

all the remaining stock-holders, whenever the pro- 
ceeds of the sinking funds shall enable it to take 
such a step. 

The debt will thus be redeemed with as little 
loss as possible, and when, during a season of 
peace, the revenue of the sinking funds shall be so 
great as to render the speedy completion of the 
transfer certain, the government may begin the 
change by lightening the national burdens in 
the remission of taxes; so that on one hand, the 
enormous taxes required to maintain the process 
of liquidation may not all at once be repealed, and 
on the other, the increased rapidity of the process 
of liquidation may not occasion towards its conclu- 
sion, too sudden a shifting of the remaining stock. 

To redeem the whole national debt of Britain, 
a revenue of more than eleven millions sterling, 
being the amount of the sinking funds in the year 
1809, is yearly set apart with its own accumula- 
tions; and being raised on the income of the peo- 
ple, by means of taxes, which, except the legacy- 
duty, and a few stamp-taxes, never can be shifted 
upon capital; it is equally distributed over the dif- 
ferent kinds of profit which constitute the whole 
national revenue. 

The transfer of this sum to the sinking funds 
sets free a stock equal to the sum raised from the 
people, after deducting the expenses of manage- 
ment. This stock will be employed in the cultiva- 
tion and commerce of the country; and so far from 



/ 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 175 

being afraid lest the process of paying the debt by 
the operation of the sinking funds should go on 
too slowly, a prudent statesman, supposing the 
nation to be at peace, would rather incline to 
check the velocity of so powerful an engine, lest 
it should acquire a momentum fatal to the stability 
of commerce. 

Our alarm however is diminished, when we 
reflect upon the gradual increase of the action of 
the sinking funds; upon its being entirel}^ under 
the control of the government; and more particu- 
larly, upon its never being able to set free at once 
more than the interest of the original incumbraii 
ces. We hear people talk of the sinking fund ac- 
cumulating until in a given number of years ii 
shall have increased to some hundreds of millions; 
but its income can never exceed the nett amount 
of the taxes; and during the last year, when it has 
reached the maximum, it sets free exactly that 
amount of stock, and no more. 

If, instead of being raised in taxes, this sum had 
remained in the pockets of the people, togethei- 
with the expenses of collection and management, 
we cannot doubt that it would have found employ- 
ment as easily as the other accumulations of pro 
fits, wages, and rents. In like manner, had the 
whole revenue of the funds from the beginnins: re- 
mained in the possession of the nation, a real ca- 
pital would have been accumulated, much greater 
than the whole debt, which would certainly have 
found an easy vent in the extension of trade, the im- 



176 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

•provement of waste lands, and the cultivation of co- 
lonial territories. 

But if the separation of the capital from its pos- 
sessors be suddenly made, a stock is accumulated 
in hands unable to employ it, unless by restoring 
it to the space which the tax has left vacant. In 
like manner, if the accumulation of a real capital 
were made by means of a fund over and above the 
amount of the debt, (not, of course, by means of 
interest,) it would be impossible suddenly to em- 
ploy it. 

The objections to the funding system, which the 
very deservedly celebrated Dr. Adam Smith ur- 
ges with so much zeal and ingenuity in his inval- 
able book on the Wealth of Nations, and which 
have been copied and re-copied by a vast multi- 
tude of succeeding political writers, among the 
rest by Mr. Albert Gallatin, the present Secretary 
of the American Treasury, in his " Sketch of the 
Finances of the United States," published in New- 
York in the year 1796; may all be reduced to three 
heads; namely, — 

1st. That the funding system unjustly burdens 
posterity with a load of debt. 

2d. That it needlessly annihilates national capi- 
tal without reproducing any equivalent for its loss. 

3dly. That it weakens every government which 
has recourse to it. 

That none of these objections to the funding 
system are founded on fact or on correct reasoning 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. l77 

It is the aim of the following pages to demon- 
strate. 

1st. As to its being unjust to burden posterity 
■with a load of debt. Strictly speaking, a nation 
has no posterity. It is a great unit from the begin- 
ning to the end of its career ; and therefore, although 
individuals shift and continually succeed each other 
from age to age, and from generation to generation, 
yet the great interests of the nation always remain 
the same; they are always one and indivisible. It 
is equally the interest of those individuals of a na- 
tion who shall come into existence fifty or a hun- 
dred years hence, that vast sums of money should 
now be spent in securing the national honor or the 
national safety, and in promoting the national 
prosperity and the national aggrandizement, as it 
is the interest of the now-existing individuals of 
that nation. 

For if it be necessary that such sums be expen- 
ded, either to repel the aggressions of a foreign 
foe, or to prevent the too great accumulation of 
power in a foreign country ; it is evident that 
without this present expenditure, the individuals 
v/ho arc to live fifty or a hundred years hence, in- 
stead of standing high in the scale of national ele- 
vation and character, will be born to no other in- 
heritance than that of the most humiliating bond- 
age to a strange tyrant and his minions. 

If then it be equally for the benefit of posterity 
as of the existing generation, that large portions of 

£ A 



178 HINTfe ON THE NATIONAL 

capital be now expended ; it is but just and right 
that posterity should also bear its share of the bur- 
dens occasioned by such an expenditure. And it 
is surely more wise to spread a given burden of 
debt over a space of one hundred years, and over a 
population of one hundred millions, than to confine 
the pressure of its weight to twenty years, and to 
twenty millions of people; taking the existing po- 
pulation of a given country to be twenty millions, 
and the time allotted for each succeeding genera- 
tion of men to be twenty years. 

For the annual surplus produce of the land and 
labor of every community, the fund which is year- 
ly added to the capital and destined to increase 
the income of the people, is the fund out of which 
all taxes ought to be taken. And as this fund can- 
not suddenly be augmented in proportion to the 
public demands upon extraordinary occasions, the 
system of borrowing, that is \X\efu7idbig system , has 
been invented ; and this system, if kept within pro- 
per bounds, and combined with the establishment 
of a sinking fund, equalises the burdens of the state 
among the different successions of men for whose 
benefit they are imposed, and defers the actual levy- 
ing oT the supplies until the national stock shall 
have accumulated fo the requisite point. 

2d]y. As to the funding system needlesly annihi- 
lating national capital, without re-producing any 
equivalent f(>r its loss. This objection is founded 
on Doctor Smith's division of the people of every 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 179 

community into two classes of laborers, the pro- 
ductive, and the unproductive. No one is allowed, 
by this justly eminent writer, to be a productive la- 
borer unless he re-produces the capital which he 
employs in any given operation, together with the 
gradual accumulation of profit or revenue, arising 
from the employment of that capital. This defini- 
tion of productive labor manifestly confines the 
application of the term to merchants, to manufac- 
turers, and to farmers, since they alone re-pro- 
duce the capital which they employ in their respec- 
tive occupations, together with a profit upon it. 
All other classes of the community are condemned 
to the disgrace of being considered as unproduc- 
tive laborers. 

Now there can be no doubt that, admitting 
Doctor Smith's definition to be correct, all the cap- 
ital which is borrowed by a government, and 
which constitutes the national debt of any given 
country, never re-produces itself, together with a 
profit, during the course of its employment, or 
expenditure. For the money which is consumed 
in paying the army and navy, the civil and eccle- 
siastical officers of government ; and all the vari- 
ous expenses incident to a nation, offers no more 
return in the actual profits of stock, than does the 
capital which a man consumes in eating and 
drinking, and wearing apparel. In all these 
cases the capital employed is consu,mecl, worn out, 



180 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

annihilated, producing no return of interest or re- 
venue. 

In this very limited sense of the term, the capi- 
tal of every public funded debt may be said to be 
annihilated ; that is to say, it does not re-produce 
itself with a profit, in the form of revenue or in- 
terest ', as it would do if employed in the occupa- 
tions of agriculture, manufactures, or commerce. 

But it by no means, therefore, follows that all 
the capital which constitutes a national debt is 
needlesly annihilated without re-producing awj 
equivalent ; as an examination of Dr. Smith's divi- 
sion of a community into productive and unpro- 
ductive laborers, and the application of certain 
well-known general principles of political science 
to the funding system, will demonstrate. 

Doctor Smith calls those laborers productive, 
who, by adding to the value of some raw mate- 
rial, or by assisting in the increase of its quanti- 
ty, realize, or fix in a vendible commodity, the 
effects of their exertions ; and he calls all those 
laborers unproductive, whose labor leaves nothing 
in existence after the moment of exertion, but 
perishes in the act of performance, without aug- 
menting the wealth of the community. Thus, he 
says, the work of the farm-servant or manufactu- 
ring laborer is productive, because it is fixed in 
a useful commodity ; but the work of a menial 
.servant is unproductive, because it perishes with 
the motion of his hands, and adds to the value of 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 181 

nothing. A man grows rich by employing a 
number of the former j he ruins himself by keep- 
ing a multitude of the latter. 

But the case of the menial servant cannot be 
compared with that of the laborer employed in 
farming or manufactures. The menial is employ- 
ed by the consumer^ and for his own use exclu- 
sively ; the farm-servant and journeyman manu- 
facturer are employed in the service of another 
party, by whom the consumer is supplied. The 
menial is in the predicament of a commodity 
bought or hired for consumption or use; the 
journeyman manufacturer and farm-servant ra- 
ther resemble tools bought or hired to work with. 

At any rate, there is no such difference as Doc- 
tor Smith supposes, between the effect of main- 
taining a multitude of these several kinds of work- 
men. It is the extravagant quantity, not the pe- 
culiar quality, of the labor thus paid for, that 
brings on ruin. A man is ruined if he keeps 
more servants than he can afford, or employ, and 
does not let them out for hire ; exactly as he is 
ruined by purchasing more food than he can con- 
sume ; or by employing more workmen in any 
branch of manufactures than his business re- 
quires, or his profits will pay. 

Nay, in general, there is no solid distinction 
between the effective powers of the two classes 
whom Doctor Smith denominates productive and 
unproductive laborers. The end of all labor is 



I^ HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

to augment the wealth of the community ; that 
is to say, the fund from which the members of 
that community derive their subsistence, their 
comforts, and their enjoyments. 

To confine the definition of wealth to mere sub- 
sistence is absurd. Those who argue thus admit 
butcher's meat and manufactured liquors to be sub- 
sistence ; yet neither of them is necessary ; for if 
all comfort and enjoyment be kept out of view, 
vegetables and water would suffice for the support 
of life; and by this mode of reasoning the epithet 
of productive would be limited to the sort of em- 
ployment that raises the species of food which 
each climate and soil is fitted to yield in greatest 
abundance with the least labor; — to the culture of 
maize in some countries; — of rice in others ; — of 
potatoes, or yams, or the bread-fruit tree, in others ; 
— and in no country would any variation of em- 
ployment whatever be consistent with the defini- 
tion. 

According to this view of the question, there* 
fore, the menial servant, the judge, the soldier, the 
litatesman, the physician, the lawyer, the minister 
of religion, (all of whom, together with many 
others, are industriously ranked by Dr. Smith as 
unproductive laborers,) are to he arranged in the 
iame class with the husbandmen and the manu- 
facturers of every civilized community. The 
produce of the labor is in all these cases calcula- 
ted to supply either the necessities, the comforts. 



BANKRUPtCY OP BRITAIN, &C. ISS 

or the luxuries of society; and that nation has 
more real wealth than another which possessesf 
more of all these commodities. 

If this be not admitted, then we compare the 
two countries only in respect of their relative 
shares of articles indispensably requisite, and pro- 
duced in greatest abundance, considering the soil 
and climate of each; and as nothing which is not 
necessary is to be considered valuable, a nation 
abounding in every species of comforts and enjoy- 
ments is to be deemed no richer than a communi- 
ty fed upon the smallest portion of the cheapest 
grain, or roots and water, which is sufficient to 
support human life. 

But it is maintained, that admitting the wealth 
of a community to be augmented by the exertions 
of those whom Dr. Smith denominates unproduc- 
tive laborers, still they are in a different predica- 
ment from the productive class, inasmuch as they 
do not augment the exchangeable value of any 
separate portion of the society's stock; neither in- 
creasing the quantity of that stock nor adding to 
the value of what formerly existed. 

To this we answer that it is of very little conse- 
(juence whether the wants of the community are' 
supplied directly by men or mediately by men 
with the intervention of matter; whether we re- 
ceive certain benefits and conveniences from those 
men at once or only in the form of inanimate and 
disposable substances. 



1»- 



184 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

Doctor Smith would admit that labor to be pro- 
ductive which realized itself in a stock, though 
that stock were destined to perish the next in- 
stant. If a player or a musician, instead of charm- 
ing our ears, were to produce something which, 
when applied to our other senses, would give us 
pleasure for a single moment of time, their labor 
would be called productive ^ although the pro- 
duce were to perish in the very act of employ- 
ment. 

Wherein, then, lies the difference ? merely in 
this ; that we must consume the one produce at 
a certain time and place ; and may use the other 
in a little more extensive latitude. But this differ* 
ence disappears when we reflect that the labor 
would still be reckoned productive which would 
give us a tangible equivalent, though it could not 
be carried from the spot of its production, and 
could last only a second of time in our hands 
upon that spot. 

The musician in reality affects our senses by 
modulating the air ; that is, he works upon the 
air, and renders a certain portion of it worth 
more than it was before he manufactured it. He 
communicates this value to it only for a moment, 
and in one place j where and when we are obliged 
to consume it. A glass-blower prepares some 
metal for our amusement or instruction, and blows 
it up to a great volume. He has now fixed his 
labor in a tangible commodity. He then exchan- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 185 

ges it, or gives it to us, that we may immediately 
use it; that is, blow it till it flies to shivers. He 
has however fixed his labor in a vendible coraniodi- 
ty. But we may desire his farther assistance; we 
may require him to use it for our benefit; and 
without any pause in his process of blowing he 
bursts it. 

This case approaches as nearly as possible to 
that of the musician ; yet Dr. Smith maintains that 
the labor of the musician is unproductive, while 
that of the glass-blower is productive; even if he 
spoil the process, and defeat the end of the exper- 
iment, by pausing and giving into unskdful hands 
the bubble before it bursts. And if he perform 
the whole of that instructive operation, by contem- 
plating which Sir Isaac Newton was taught the 
nature of color, his labor must be stigmatized as 
unproductive. 

Neither is it fair to deny that the class of labor- 
ers called unproductive ever fixes its labor in 
some existing commodity. No labor, not even 
that of the farmer, actually adds to the stock alrea- 
dy in existence. Man never creates; he only mo- 
difies the mass of matter previously in his posses- 
sion. And the unproductive as well as the pro- 
ductive class, does actually realize its labor in an 
additional value conferred upon the stock former- 
ly existing ; only instead of working upon detached 
portions, it operates upon the general stock of the 
community. 

SB 



185 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

Thus the soldier renders every portion of the 
stock more valuable by securing the whole from 
plunder; and the judge also increases its value 
by securing the whole from injury. Dr. Smith 
calls that man a productive laborer who manufac- 
tures bolts and bars for the protection of property. 
Is he not also then a productive laborer who pro- 
tects property in the mass, and adds to every por- 
tion of it the quality of being secure ? So those 
who increase the enjoyment of society add a value 
to the stock previously existing; they furnish new 
equivalents for which it may be exchanged; they 
render the stock worth more, that is, exchange- 
able for more; capable of commanding more en- 
joyments than it could formerly command. 

The stock of the community consists of that 
part which is consumed by the producer, and of 
that part which he exchanges for some object of de- 
sire. Were there nothing for which to exchange 
the latter portion of the stock, it would soon cease 
to be produced. Hence the labor that augments 
the sum of the enjoyments and objects of desire 
for which this portion of stock may be exchanged 
is indirectly beneficial to production. But if this 
portion destined to be exchanged is already in 
existence, the labor which is supported by it, and 
which returns an equivalent to the former owner 
by the new enjoyments that it yields him, must be 
allowed to add a value directly to the exchange- 
able part of the stock. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 187 

In every point of view, therefore, the position of 
Dr. Smith is untenable. He has drawn his line of 
distinction between productive and unproductive 
labor in too low a part of the scale. The labor which 
he denominates unproductive has the very same 
qualities with a great part of the labor which he 
allows to be productive. According to his own prin- 
ciples, the line should have been drawn so as to cut 
off on the one hand, the labor which apparently in- 
creases the quantity of stock; and to leave, on the 
other hand, all that labor which only modifies, or 
in some manner induces, a beneficial change upon 
stock already in existence. 

There is alike an inaccuracy in drawing a line 
of distinction between the different channels in 
which capital and labor may be employed, whe- 
ther we separate, with Doctor Smith and his follow- 
ers, the operation of agriculture, manufactures, 
and commerce, from those arts where nothing 
tangible is produced or exchanged, or we place, 
according to the French economists and their dis- 
ciples, the division somewhat higher, and limit the 
denomination oi productive io the pursuits of agri- 
culture alone. 

All those occupations which tend to supply the 
necessary wants, or to multiply the comforts and 
pleasures of human life, are equally productive in 
the strict sense of the word ; and tend to augment 
the mass of human riches ; meaning by riches all 
those things which are necessary, or convenient, 
or delightful to man. 



188 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

The progress of society has been attended with 
a complete separation of employments originally 
united. At first, every man provided for his ne- 
cessities as well as his pleasures, and for all his 
tvants as well as all his enjoyments. By degrees a 
division of these cares was introduced ; to supply 
the subsistence of the community became the 
province of one class; to provide its comforts was 
the business of another ; and to procure its grati- 
iications was the office of a third. The different 
operations subservient ^o the attainments of each 
of these objects were then intrusted to different 
hands, and the universal establishment of barter 
connected the whole of these divisions and subdi- 
visions together ; enabled one set of men to manu- 
facture for all without danger of starving in con- 
sequence of not ploughing or hunting, and an- 
other set of men to plough or hunt for all without 
incurring the risk of wanting tools or clothes in 
consequence of not manufacturing. 

It has thus become as impossible to say exactly, 
who feeds, clothes, and entertains the community, 
as it would be impossible to say which of the ma- 
ny workmen enployed in the manufacture of pins 
is the actual pin-maker, or which of the farm-ser- 
vants produces the crop. All the branches of use- 
ful industry work together to produce one com- 
mon end ; as all the parts of each branch co-ope- 
ate to effect its particular object. 

If vou sav that the farmer feeds the communitv. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 189 

and produces all the raw materials upon which the 
other classes of society work ; we answer, that un- 
less those other classes worked upon the raw ma- 
terials, and supplied the farmer's necessities, he 
would be forced to allot part of his labor to this 
employment, whilst he forced others to assist in 
raising the rude produce. In such a complicated 
system all labor has the same effect, and equally 
increases the whole mass of wealth. Nor can any 
attempt be more vain than that which would de- 
fine the particular parts of the machine that pro- 
duce the motion which is necessarily the result of 
the whole powers combined, and depends on each 
one of the mutally connected members. 

Yet so wedded is Doctor Smith to his position, 
that certain necessary kinds of employment are 
unproductive, that he actually ranks the capital 
sunk in a public debt in the same class with the pro- 
perty consumed by fire, and the labor destroyed 
by pestilence. 

But the debts of a country are always contrac- 
ted, and its wars entered into, for some purpose 
either of security or aggrandizement ; and stock 
thus employed must have produced an equivalent ; 
which cannot be asserted of property or popula- 
tion absolutely destroyed. This equivalent may 
have been greater or less ; that is to say, the money 
spent for useful purposes may have been applied 
with more or less prudence and frugality. Those 
purposes too may have been more or less useful ; 



190 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

and a certain degree of waste and extravagance al- 
ways attends the ojoeration of funding and of war. 

But this is only an addition to the necessary 
price at which the benefits in view must be bought. 
The food of a country, in like manner, may be used 
with different degrees of economy, and the neces- 
sity of eating may be supplied, at more or less cost. 
So long as wars exist, it is absurd to denominate 
those expenses unproductive which are incurred by- 
defending a country ; or which amounts to the 
same thing, preventing an invasion by ajudicious 
attack of an enemy ; or, which also amounts to 
the same, avoiding the necessity of war by a pru- 
dent system of foreign policy. 

And he who holds the labor of soldiers and sai- 
lors and diplomatic agents to be unproductive, 
commits precisely the same error as he who should 
maintain the labor of the hedger to be unproduc- 
tive because he only protects, and does not rear 
the crop. All these kinds of labor and employ- 
ments of stock are parts of the same system, and 
all are equalli) productive of wealth. 

Yet Dr. Smith gravely remarks how much richer 
England would now be if she had never waged 
certain wars. AVith equal justice we might calcu- 
late how manj/ more coats, Avaistcoats, and breeches 
we shoijid nov/ have if v.c had always gone na- 
ked. 1 lie remarks stated above, apply equally to 
a circumstance in the theory of the balance of 
trade. In stating; the proportion of exports to 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &e. 191 

imports, no notice can ever be taken in custom- 
house accounts of money remitted for subsidies, or 
for the payment of troops and fleets abroad. 

But it is very inaccurate to assert that these sums 
are so much actually sent out of the country with- 
out an equivalent. In point of fact the equivalent 
is great and obvious ; although of a nature which 
cannot be stated in figures among the imports. 

The equivalent is all the success gained by fo- 
reign warfare and foreign policy; the security 
and aggrandizement of the state ; and the power 
of carrying on that commerce, without which 
there would be neither exports nor imports to cal- 
culate and compare. 

An examination of the principles of the fund- 
ing system will demonstrate the policy and wis 
dom of having recourse to such an expedient. 

In every prosperous community the yearly pro> 
duce of the land, labor, and capital of the inhabi-' 
tants makes a certain clear addition annually to 
the whole stock or wealth of the country. At 
first, the amount of the capital is small, the pro- 
fits of stock high, and the yearly augmentation 
considerable. By degrees, the rate of this in- 
crease becomes smaller ; that is to say, the profit.'? 
of each separate portion of capital are diminished 
by competition ; but the whole clear gain is al- 
ways increasing ; so that although individual? 
make a smaller average gain upon a given portion 
of stock each ten years than they did on the samr 



19« HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

portion of stock the ten years immediately ptece- 
ding, the whole gains of the community are great- 
er during the second than they were during the 
first of these decennial periods. 

This is evident from the manner in which capi- 
tal makes its returns. Suppose the stock of a 
community like Holland engaged almost entirely 
in commerce^ and a little agriculture, to consist 
of eighty millions in trade, ten millions in manu- 
factures, and ten millions in agriculture ; and that 
the average rate of profit in all these branches of 
employment is ten per cent. A sum of ten mil- 
lions is netted the first year ; of which say five go 
to support the inhabitants, and the other five are 
stored up so as to increase the national capital to 
one hundred and five millions. 

Employment must be found for this additional 
capital. A part of it will go to the land, a part 
to the manufactures, and the rest to the commerce 
of the country. The increased competition in 
each branch will diminish the average rate of pro- 
fit, and only nine and three quarters per cent, will 
be netted upon the capital next year. The acti- 
vity and ingenuity of the people being now con- 
stantly at work to maintain a struggle with the 
diminution of profits, and to keep up the total in- 
come in spite of the lowered rate of gain, new 
lines of trade are struck out, new improvements 
made in the fisheries, new machinery invented, 
and waste lands cleared. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 193 

Thus the stock of the community goes on in- 
creasing, and the part added gives an additional 
revenue, in spite of the diminished rate of gain, 
until all the land is made the most of, all the 
manufactures improved as far as possible, and all 
the branches of commerce are fdled with capital. 

But new capital is still accumulated; and it is 
the invariable tendency of new capital to push its 
way into new employments. Yet in a country 
like Holland there is a limit to this expansive 
power of stock in the nature of existing circum- 
stances ; and every increase of capital augments 
the difficulty of vesting it. At first the surplus 
goes to the distant trader, the round-about tra- 
der, and the various branches of the carrying 
trade ; then it makes its way into the colonies or 
foreign settlements of the state, by loan to the col- 
onist, or by investment in the colonial commerce ^ 
next, it emigrates thither in purchases, and per- 
haps carries along with it the proprietor himself. 

When impolitic regulations, or foreign con- 
quests, or colonial dissensions and insecurity ob- 
struct its progress in this line, it goes into the ser- 
vice of foreign|;states, by loans to the governments 
who give the best security ; next it is vested even 
in loans to individuals ; it then goes over in pur- 
chases, and probably carries along with it the pro- 
prietor ; last of all, it finds its way into foreign 
colonies. When all these channels are full, if they 
can be filled, the capital must cea,se to be accumu- 

2 C 



194 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

lated ; the habits of the people must be changed , 
they must spend instead of heaping up, and the 
nation will become stationary ; or more probably 
will fall into decay. 

Such is the natural progress of national opulence. 
Holland has gone through all the stages of this 
process, and perhaps has reached the last stage 
some time since. 

There is a striking analogy between the progress 
of wealth and the progress of population in every 
part of their history. At first when land is plenti- 
ful the numbers of a people double in fifteen or 
twenty years ; by degrees the rate of increase be- 
comes slower J but still the numbers augment in a 
geometrical progression. Emigration to the colo- 
nies begins to take place; the overflowing num- 
bers then find vent in other countries ; and 1 ast of 
all they remove to foreign and distant colonies. 

Still a boundary is fixed by nature; and that 
change of place will not prevent the full develop- 
ment of this principle is evident, when we reflect, 
that if we take the whole population of the earth 
for the subject of calculation, the effect of emigra- 
tion ceases to modify the result, while the princi- 
ple applies with the same force as before. What 
the increase of wealth has produced in Holland, 
the increase of population has produced in China. 
These two countries, the one from physical, the 
other from political and moral causes, offer to our 
contemplation the instructive spectacles of ex- 
treme cp^.es in these important inquiries. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 195 

But the evils of increasing capital, like the evils 
of increasing population, are felt long before the 
case has become extreme ; and a nation is much 
more likely, at least in the present state of com- 
mercial policy, to suffer from increasing wealth 
than from increasing numbers of people. Are 
there no checks provided by the constitution of hu- 
man nature, and the construction of civil society, 
for the one as well as for the other of these evils ? 
Mr. Malthus has pointed out the manner in 
vv^hich the principle of population is counteracted; 
and causes nearly analogous will be found to 
check the progressive increase of capital. Luxu- 
rious living and other kinds of unnecessary expen- 
diture ; above all, political expenses, and chiefly 
the expenses of war, furnish those necessary checks 
to the indefinite augmentation of wealth, which 
there was reason a priori to suppose would be 
some where provided by the wise regulations of na- 
ture. 

In a wealthy state of society, therefore, much less 
mischief is to be apprehended from the conversion 
of a certain portion of capital into revenue, by 
means of the funding system, while the accumula- 
tion of national capital is going on, than men in 
general have been disposed to believe. 

Suppose that the nature of man were not war- 
like ; that no such expenses had been necessary 
as those which Britain has been forced to incur 
during the last century; and that consequently 



196 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

she had contracted no public debts. It is not ea- 
sy to calculate the amount of the capital, over and 
above the national stock that she now possesses, 
which she would have accumulated during that 
period The sum of six hundred millions, the no- 
minal capital of her national debt is not enough; 
every pound of that enormous sum would have 
been laid out at compound interest, and have ac- 
cumulated so as probably to double during the 
period in question; even allowing for a vast aug- 
mentation of yearly expense occasioned by a more 
rapid increase of population; making a total of 
British national wealth, amounting to three ihou- 
sand nine hundred millions, instead of her present 
national capital of two thousand seven hundred 
millions. 

With perhaps half as many more inhabitants, a 
thing no ways desirable on any account, Britain 
would now possess nearly a third more than her 
present fixed and realized national stock, a thing 
to be deprecated on many accounts. If it be diffi- 
cult for her in the present state of her wealth 
to find vent for her existing capital, how could she 
invest an additional sum of twelve hundred mil- 
lions with a return of profit. 

The cruelties and other immoralities and mise- 
ries of war are out of the question ; we speak now 
of money, not of men; and as numbers of people 
are generally admitted to be no great blessing, 
abstractedly considered, it is no strained inference 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 197 

from the preceding statements to doubt if im- 
mense quantities of capital be of themselves a 
great national good; and to suggest the possibility 
of a nation so circumstanced falling back, since 
no community can be stationary for any length 
of time; (for every nation, like every individual, 
must from the \ery necessity of its nature and 
condition, either improve or deteriorate) — or of 
becoming a prey to poorer neighbors, and to the 
worst of foes, its own internal seeds of putrefac- 
tion and decay. 

Let us attend now to the specific mode in which 
the indefinite accumulation of national capital is 
obstructed or retarded by the different kinds of 
financial policy that have been adopted in the 
different stages of society. 

In the earlier periods of civilization, when on- 
ly a small portion of stock has been accumulated, 
wars, the great article in the extraordinary ex- 
pense of every nation, are carried on at little cost; 
for these are the ages in which the numbers of 
mankind are very limited, and labor is but little 
subdivided. Each man of full strength therefore 
contributes his share to the public defence by ac- 
tual service ; and the season of warfare is conlined 
to a particular season of the year. A country is 
indeed now and then ravaged, and useful hands 
are always cut off. The consequence is, that ma- 
ny lives are lost, much misery occasioned, and a 
great deal of partial poverty produced. The 



198 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

whole body of the nation however suffers only in 
this topical manner; and those members which es- 
cape disease or amputation are perfectly sound. 

One of the first effects of accumulated national 
stock is a division of labor, and personal service 
gradually wears out. Taxation is introduced, 
and money, that is, revenue, is required to defray 
the ordinary, and still more the extraordinary ex- 
penses of the state. These steps are gone through 
by different belligerents, that is, different neigh- 
bouring nations, in the same or nearly the same 
periods of time; for the nations which form, as it 
were, federal commonwealths, linked together by 
the relations of peace and war, are always run- 
ning with equal pace the same career of improve- 
ment. 

By degrees, wars become perhaps less frequent, 
but certainly much more expensive; in the same 
manner that all other articles of expendi- 
ture, public and private, increase in costliness, as 
subsistence, luxuries, education, government, 
judicatures, embassies, &c. &c. and the ordinary 
revenue of the state becomes less and less ade- 
quate to defray the extraordinary expenses occa- 
sioned, and suddenly occasioned by the breaking 
out of hostilities. Thus a government which 
expends ten millions a year in its government and 
public works during peace, will be forced at once 
to spend perhaps thirty millions in a single year of 
war. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 199 

How shall this sudden augmentation of expen- 
ses be provided for ? It can be only in one or in all 
three of these ways ; either by saving so much out of 
the ordinary articles of expenditure, or by levy- 
ing three times the ordinary taxes ; or by borrow- 
ing money to the amount of the additional sums 
required. 

If any great saving out of the ordinary expenses 
were practicable it would be highly impolitic ; it 
would instantly diminish the revenue of the nation 
and of the government, and injure the wealth as 
well as the happiness of the community for many 
succeeding generations. 

These lamentable effects would be produced in 
this manner ; by diminishing the ordinary ex- 
penses of a nation we lessen the demand for, and 
in consequence the quantity of productive indus- 
try in all its branches ; which would also lessen 
the annual accumulation of national capital, from 
whose income alone the public revenue can be 
effectually and permanently drawn. 

For instance, say a whole nation consumes less 
food, less clothing, less of the conveniences and 
comforts of life, than it has hitherto done ; the in- 
evitable effect must be, that less land would be 
cultivated, as less would be sufficient to supply 
the diminished demand for food ; thus would agri- 
culture be discouraged j less manufacturing indus- 
try would also be put in motion, because less 
would be wanted to furnish the diminished demand 



200 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

for clothing; thus would manufactures languish 
and decay ; less commercial enterprise would also 
be afloat, since less would be needed to supply 
the contracted demands of a narrower market for 
its commodities ; thus would trade be curtailed in 
its operations. 

And when a nation once becomes retrograde in 
its three great branches of productive industry, 
agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, it rap- 
idly hastens to destruction ; the sources of public 
revenue are dried up, the population diminishes, 
the government loses its energy, the spirit of the 
people evaporates into indolence and weakness ; 
and the whole community silently and unresist- 
ingly sinks into the arms of a foreign foe, or of do- 
mestic despotism. 

The late and present condition of Holland is a 
full and striking illustration of the truth of this po- 
sition. 

The only question, then, is between the compara- 
tive merits of the other two systems of finance, 
namely, a taxation which shall raise the supplies 
within the year, or a contract which shall procure 
the extraordinary sums by loan; which of these is 
the safest, the easiest, and the most consonant to 
the natural order of things ? 

The expenses of every individual are propor- 
tioned to the ordinary state of society in which he 
lives. He squares his enjoyments by his common 
rate of gain, and by the common amount of the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 201 

•contributions which he must pay to the public ser- 
vice. The bulk of the community, the middle or- 
ders, on whom the chief weight of all taxes must 
ultimately fall, are peculiarly unable to increase 
their contributions on any sudden emergency. 
The man who could hardly pay fifty pounds last 
year, would have nothing to live upon if you took 
from him one hundred and fifty or two hundred 
pounds this year. He musteither leave the country, 
hide his property, encroach on his capital, or run 
in debt. 

If he encroach on his capital, he is less able 
to pay taxes next year even to the ordinary 
amount, and no prudent government would listen 
to a scheme which should make all the individuals 
of the community run in debt on their own sepa- 
rate accounts, admitting that they could all give 
such security as would induce money-holders to 
trust them. Besides what becomes of the large 
class of annuitants in every country, laborers of ev- 
ery sort who have little or no stock on which to en- 
croach and can give little or no security to the 
lenders ; and traders on commission whose gains 
are so little proportioned to their capitals, but 
whose contributions ought to bear some propor- 
tions to their gains? 

The proper fund of all taxation is not the gene- 
ral capital of the community, and consequently 
not that part of the revenue which is necessary 
for the support of the proprietor and his capital, 

9. D 



^02 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

and which if tourhed must ultimately throw the 
burden on the capital. The only fund from which 
taxes can be safely drawn is the revenue reserved 
for consumption ; and the question is — How ^AxaW 
this be effected so as to increase at will the public 
revenue without injury to the wealth of the nation, 
or injustice to individuals ? 

The immediate effect of every war, civil or ex- 
ternal, and in a le^s degree of all those other emer- 
gencies vvhich happen to a nation, is to obstruct 
the ordinary employment of capital ; to throw a 
quantity of stock which was formerly profitably 
invested out of its place, and to prevent the new 
accumulations of stock from finding new channels 
of employment. A great mass of capital is thus 
collected in the hands both of the mercantile and 
manufacturing part of the community, shifting 
and floating about, ready for any speculation, or 
any profitable use whatever. 

This is the part of the national stock which na- 
turally seeks the service of the public; it can be 
employed in no other way, and should be used by 
the state. The owners are always willing to give 
the use of it to government for a certain premium; 
and when the crisis that occasions the extraordi- 
nary expenditure is past, they have the opportu- 
nity of re-investing their capital in trade ; partly 
as it may be gradually paid back to them by the 
state ; and partly as they may transfer their secu- 
rities to a class of proprietors always increasing in 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 203 

every wealthy country, namely, the monied inter- 
est, who are constantly drawing together floating 
capital by profitable speculations, and have no 
means of employing it but in loans. 

The best creditor for all these descriptions of 
persons is the government ; at least in ordinary ca- 
ses its security is the most tempting and the most 
transferable ; so that upon any sudden call for the 
stock they can transfer the security and use their 
capital. 

In every country arrived at a great degree of 
wealth, changes are perpetually taking place in 
the channels of employment for capital, and in 
the situations of the capitalists. A tract of waste 
land at home is parcelled out for improvement j 
a new colony is added by conquest or bargain ; a 
new line of trade, or a new art is opened. All 
these kinds of changes produce a demand for stock, 
and cause it to be drawn from the floating mass of 
capital above described, or from the public funds 
which have arisen from that mass. 

But at the same time other changes of an op- 
posite description are going on. The accumula- 
tion of capital at home and abroad is always fil- 
ling up certain channels of commerce, of agricul- 
ture, and of manufactures; changes of mode and 
of taste are checking or destroying the demand 
for certain articles; not to mention the direct ten- 
dency of national calamities, wars, plagues, fires, 
famines, shipwrecks, he. to produce similar effects. 
And changes of this latter kind, are by much the 



204 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

most numerous and extensive of the two kinds, af- 
ter a nation has reached a certain pitch of wejilth. 
Hence ih^ public funds afford a sort of enirei.ot 
for capital, a deposit where it is naturally collected 
in an useful employment, (in as much as wars are 
necessary evils) ready at the same time for other 
services, and capable of being transferred in a 
moment to fill ihose blanks vihich accident may 
occasion. The natural order of things prescribes 
this arrangement ; it is the mode of raising large 
sums least noxious to the state ; and it throws the 
expenses of the emergency entirely upon the sur- 
plus revenue of the community ; — first, by the year- 
ly interest paid for the use of the money borrow- 
ed ; and secondly, by the provisions for gradual 
payment which a wise nation will always make 
part of its funding system. 

7'hereis a striking similarity in the mode in which 
wars affect the capital of a country and the effects 
produced by them upon its population. The same 
analogy holds here which was traced above be- 
tween the numbers and the wealth of a nation. 
The emergencies of public affairs produce the 
very men required by their demands, and the very 
sums of money with which those men may be 
hired by the state. The same capitals now con- 
tinue to employ the same men as during peace. 
Formerly they were employed in manufactures 
and trade; now those channels of employment are 
obstructed, and the stock is thrown into the public 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 205 

service, together with the men no longer useful in 
the peaceable arts. 

From this consideration may be dedncerl a proof 
of the absurdities of the militia system ; and the 
same view of the subject which prescribes the re- 
cruiting system as the only SHfe means of filling 
the army, prescribes \\\e funding si/stem as the onli/ 
^^6'modeof supplyinjT the money which is to pay 
that army. It does not follow that, if no war exis- 
ted, both the men and the money might not be 
more productively employed •, but it has been 
already showc. that both population and capital 
in the more refined stages of society have a ten- 
dency to overflow ; and that greater evils may 
arise from the superabundance than from the de- 
ficiency of both. 

To conclude, then, the arguments which go to 
prove the necessity, policy, and wisdom of adopt- 
ing the funding system, we say, that as the wants 
of the state whatever be their extent must be fully 
supplied ; and as this can only be done by contri- 
butions levied on the internal resources of the 
country, the skill of the financier must be display- 
ed, not in removing, but in palliating the evds of 
taxation; not in really lightening a load which 
must be borne, but in rendering it more tolerable 
by a more equal distribution of its pressure. 

This must be done either by borrowing money, 
or by paying debt. It is quite chimerical there- 



206 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

fore to expect that any real saving can accrue to 
the public from those arrangements of finance 
which consist merely in blending, or in combining 
these very simple operations; whose object is not 
to save, but to modify and regulate; either to re- 
lieve the existing generation by drawing on the 
more ample resources of a future age ; or to relieve 
posterity at the expense of the existing genera- 
tion. 

If the expenditure of a state be at any time in- 
creased much beyond its usual rate, from the fre- 
quent occurrence of war, or from ^iny other un- 
foreseen emergency, it would be obviously most 
unjust to load one generation beyond its strength, 
and entirely to relieve posterity from burdens 
which are imposed as much for their benefit and 
security as for the welfare of their forefathers. It 
would also be very inexpedient, because the 
weight which, if laid all at once, would crush the 
prosperity of a countr}^ maybe so divided and 
lightened by being gradually increased as to allow 
its growing resources freely to expand, and the 
fund from which future exertions must be made 
to be proportionally enlarged, so as to meet with 
ease the pressure even of heavier demands. 

It is the great and distinguishing excellence of 
the fimding system that it enables the statesman to 
levy contributions on future ages, and thus fur- 
nishes him with ample resources for the execution 
of great designs ; and though in its excess it may 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, v^C. 207 

degenerate into an intolerable grievance, and may 
even strike at the root of national prosperity, yet 
in its milder operation it does not in any great 
degree retard the advancement of a thriving coun- 
try. It lops off only the redundant branches, 
while the massy trunk, untouched and unimpaired, 
is left to renew for a future age its fresh and more 
abundant foliage. 

It is evidpnt, however, that if the debt of a na- 
tion be regularly and rapidly increasing, so that 
in each successive year it becomes necessary to 
mortgage a greater portion of its annual revenue, 
the period must arrive sooner or later when it 
will be impossible to make any further addition 
to its burdens. In these circumstances no mea- 
sure, however strongly recommended by consider- 
ations of public utility, can be adopted without 
the imminent hazard of national bankruptcy. 

The most effectual, and indeed the only method 
of guarding against this calamity, is to establish, 
at the period when the debt is first contracted, a 
sinking fund for its final redemption ; and thus, 
while the resources of posterity are freely antici- 
pated, to provide at the same time the certain 
means of their future relief. The design of the 
funding system is to lighten the burden of an un- 
commonly heavy expenditure by extending it 
over a succession of generations j while the system 
of sinking funds fixes a period for the discharge 
of these incumbrances, and thus prevents any 



208 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

one generation from being overwhelmed by the 
consolidated debt of a^i^es. 

By invariably combining the expedient of bor- 
rowing with the practice of establishing a sinking 
fund for the redemption of the debt, the extremes 
of two opposite systems are in a manner tempered 
and balanced ; we are enabled to avoid the incon- 
veniencies peculiar to each, and to avail ourselves 
of all their advantages without any of their evils. 

3diy. As to the funding system weakejiing the 
hands of the government which resorts to it. 
This objection appears to have, if possible, less 
foundation in reason and in fact than the other 
two which have been already examined ; for, 

1st. the very pressure of necessity, and the bur- 
den of taxation incident to the funding system, 
stimulates the industry of a people to a greater 
and more constant degree of exertion than where 
no such pressure exists. A far greater quantity 
of labor is produced by a given number of people 
in Britain, under the stimulus of taxation, than is 
produced by the same number of people similar- 
ly employed in the United States, whose inhabi- 
tants are industriously taught to believe that all 
taxation is tyranny and folly. 

It is admitted by Mr Hume, in his Essay on 
Taxation, that where taxes are moderate, laid on 
gradually, and do not affect the necessaries of life, 
the poor increase their industry, perform more 
work, and live better than before; in a word, be- 



BANKkUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. S09 

,Gome more laborious and more opulent than 
others who enjoy the greatest advantages. He 
infers, that since some natural necessities or disad- 
vantages are favorable to industry, artificial bur- 
dens may produce the same € iTect ; and quotes 
with applause the follov^ ing remarks from Sir Wil- 
liam Temple's account of the Netherlands, where 
the laborious industry of the Dutch is contrasted 
with the incorrigible idleness of the Irish. 

" In Ireland, by the largeness and plenty of 
the soil, and scarcity of the people, all things ne- 
cessary to life are so cheap that an industrious 
man by two days labor may gain enough to feed 
him the rest of the week, which I take to be a 
very plain ground of the laziness attributed to the 
people. For men naturally prefer ease before la- 
bor; and will not take pains if they can live idle; 
though when by necessity they have been inured 
to it they cannot leave it, being grown a custom 
necessary to their health, and to their very enter- 
tainment. Nor perhaps is the change harder from 
constant ease to labor than from constant labor 
to ease." 

It is a well known truth that when the wages 
of journeymen manufacturers are very high, much 
less work upon the whole is done by them than 
when their wages are moderately low. It is com- 
mon in such cases for the men to work three days 
in the week, and to be drunk the other four. 

Now if the pressure of necessity incites the indi- 



i]0 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

victuals of a community to greater and more con- 
stant exertions of labor, it is evident that the an- 
nual accumulations of national stock or capital 
will be greater also ; since the collective wealth 
of the public must be acquired by the productive 
industry of individuals. 

I mean to sav, that the annual accumulations 
of national stock or capital would be greater in 
proportion than the taxes. For since taxation, as 
here qualified, must be in a moderate proportion 
to a man's clear g^ns ; if the doubling of a tax 
doubles his industry and its produce, he must 
grow richer. For instance, if he pays two pounds 
upon a revenue of forty pounds, his own share is 
thirty-eight pounds. But if he works only half 
his time to gain these forty pounds, and the doub- 
ling of his tax frightens him into regular labor, 
he earns eighty in the same time that he used to 
earn forty pounds ; then double his tax, that is, 
deduct four pounds from his revenue of eighty, 
and he has seventy-six instead of thirty-eight 
pounds for his own share; leaving the laborer a 
clear profit of one hundred per cent. 

And if the national wealth be augmented, the 
strength of the government which has the dispo- 
sal of that wealth, and annually draws to itself a 
portion of it in the form of taxes, must be also in- 
creased ; in so far as it has a wider field of influ- 
ence and power over which to exert its control. 
Other things being equal, that is to say, the ex- 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 211 

tent anrl ronnpactness of territory, the fertility 
and culiare of the soil, the amount of population, 
the industry, enterprise, courage, virtue, and intel- 
ligence of the people being equal, that govern- 
ment is the strongest which has the command 
of the greatest wealth; a rich nation always being 
more powerful than a poor one, if the other cir- 
cumstances of the inhabitants of the respective 
countries be the same, or nearly so. Britain by 
her immense wealth has extended her power far 
beyond what the mere circumstances, physical and 
moral, of her condition, without that wealth, could 
have enabled her to do. — But, 

2dly. The funding system most materially 
strengthens the hands of government by attaching 
to its support a vast number of individuals by the 
strongest of all human ties, namely, self-interest. 
For the stock-holders, whether to a large or to a 
small amount, feel it their interest in every extraor- 
dinary emergency to rally round that government 
whose fall would destroy their property. And 
where a debt is very large, the stock-holders and 
their immediate dependants are very numerous, 
and being spread over every part of the commu- 
nity constitute a very powerful guarantee to the 
stability of government. 

Accordingly, during the war which began in 
1793 and ended in 1802, when the efforts of jaco- 
binism> foreign and domestic, were all directed 
with the most deadly aim, by violence and fraud to 



212 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

overthrow the British government, the stockhold- 
ersin Britain immediately took the alarm, and hast- 
ened to the defence of their king and constitution. 

From all that has been said, vi'e apprehend" the 
springing up of three great national evils to Bri- 
tain, from the entire liquidation of her public 
debts : namely, 

1st. That it will very considerably reduce the 
influence of the crown, by the gradual but at length 
total reduction of the immense patronage which 
the British monarch now possesses in the appoint- 
ment of all the officers and servants employed in 
the collection of the taxes and the management of 
the monies relating to the national debt. And 
the contemplation of the horrible events which, for 
these last twenty years, have been covering the 
fairest portions of Europe with blood and desola- 
tion, does by no means reconcile a prudent and ju- 
dicious mind to the adoption of any measure which 
has the least tendency to curtail the power of the 
British Executive. 

2dly. The entire liquidation of the national 
debt will weaken the hands of the British govern- 
ment, by taking away that common bond of union 
which now exists between itself and the public 
creditors. A farmer, a merchant, or a manufac- 
turer, is naturally less attached to and feels him- 
self less dependent upon the government than 
does a stock- holder whose interest is identified 
with that of the state. And it would not be difTi- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 213 

cult to demonstrate that no government can be 
strong for any great purposes of national enter- 
prise and charaL^ter, unless it have at its command 
a vast funding system, or be in itself a new-born 
military despotism. Which of the two is better 
fitted to promote the happiness of its own people, 
and the welfare of the other nations of the earth, 
let the present examples of Britain and France tell. 

Sdly. To these evils may be also added that of 
greatly deranging the whole internal economy of 
society in Britain. In the course of eight years 
from the present period, that is by the beginning of 
the year 1818, the annual income of the sinking 
funds will amount to tv/enty-two millions seven 
hundred and twenty thousand pounds. 

When this fund was first established, the evils of 
its excessive increase were foreseen and provided 
against. By a subsequent arrangement, however, 
the sinking funds of 1786 and 1792 were consoli- 
dated, and no limit was fixed for their accumula- 
tion. The mischief it was thought could be guard- 
ed against when it drew nigh, and the great acces- 
sion of debt, occasioned by the enormous expen- 
diture of the war beginning in the year 1793, had 
removed to a distant period the dangers which were 
to be apprehended from the future increase of the 
sinking fund. 

When we consider, however, not only its present 
amount, but how rapidly it must accumulate, inde- 
pendent of the strong claims of the present gene- 



214 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

ration for relief from their burdens, we may well 
look to the period when it will be expedient to 
limit its operation ; and thus, by rendering the 
reduction of the debt more gradual, to guard 
against the effects of too sudden a change. 

The collecting of that immense revenue which 
is at present required for the payment of the pub- 
lic creditors, and for the service of the state, togeth- 
er with the whole body of laws, regulations, and 
complicated establishments necessary for this pur- 
pose, has effected a great, though imperceptible, 
change in the structure of society in Britain. To 
this artificial state of society, however, the views, 
habits, schemes, and commercial arrangements of 
the British people are accommodated ; and any 
great or sudden alteration, even although it might 
remove one evil, would undoubtedly produce ex- 
tensive mischief. 

The abstraction of a certain portion of the rev- 
enue of a country is «ot the only inconvenience 
of taxation. The increase in the price of the com- 
modity taxed, the consequent diminution of its 
consumption, and perhaps the stagnation of the 
manufacture, produce fully as much confusion and 
evil as the mere privation of national revenue oc- 
casioned by the tax. But the business of society 
adapts itself to a change fairly accomplished, and 
goes on with the same regularity as before. 

In these circumstances, if things were suddenly 
reinstated in their original condition, the evil of 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, v^C. 215 

taxation would no doubt be removed ; but this 
benefit would be accompanied by all those inci- 
dental evils which the sudden reformation even of 
acknowledged grievances, never fails to produce. 
The redemption of the national debt is in general 
considered as the mere prelude to relief from taxa- 
tion ; but it never seems to be imagined that the 
repealing of taxes to the enormous annual amount 
of twenty or thirty millions, which are now re- 
quired to pay the interest of the public debt, will 
be a work either of difficulty or of delicacy. 

Yet the same skill and contrivance which were 
called forth when those taxes were imposed, will 
be required to guard against the evils that may be 
produced by their repeal. Perhaps, there is no 
business of finance in which a departure from the 
line of considerate caution would produce such 
extensive evil. 

There is not the same risk in imposing taxes, 
because an exceptionable tax may be repealed, 
and the imposition of a new tax raises the price of 
the commodity on hand, and so far is an advantage 
to the dealers in it ; but by rashly repealing a tax 
on any commodity to a great amount, the dealers 
in it might be all ruined by the sudden fall which 
would take place in the value of their stock on 
hand. By relieving one particular article from a 
tax, its consumption might be greatly increased, 
and it might drive from the market all other rival 
commodities on which the taxes were still con- 
tinued. 



216 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

The repeal of one tax might thus render various 
taxes unproductive, and what would be a still 
greater evil, it might diminish the demand for 
other commodities, and produce a stagnation in 
their respective manufactures. It would perhaps 
be impossible without great inconvenience to re- 
peal in one year taxes to the amount of more than 
two millions sterling. 

The great importance of collecting and skilfully 
managing an ample public revenue is displayed, 
with all his accustomed superiority of talents, by 
Mr. Burke, the great father of political philosophy 
in Britain, in his Reflections on the Revolution in 
France, written in the year 1790. London edition, 
5th vol. p. 403. 

The revenue of the state is the state. In effect 
all depends upon it, whether for support or for re- 
formation. The dignity of every occupation 
wholly depends upon the quantity and the kind of 
virtue that may be exerted in it. As all great 
qualities which operate in public, and are not 
merely suffering and passive, require force for 
their display, I had almost said for their unequivo- 
cal existence, the revenue^ ivhich is the spring of all 
powers becomes in its administration the sphere 
of every active virtue. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 217 

Public virtue being of a nature magnificent 
and splendid, instituted for great things, and con- 
versant about great concerns, requires abundant 
scope and room ; and cannot spread and grow 
under confinement, and in circumstances strait- 
ened, narrow, and sordid. Through the revenue 
alone can the body-politic act in its true genius 
and character ; and therefore it will display just 
as much of its collective virtue, and as much of 
that virtue which may characterize those who 
move it, and are, as it were, its life and guiding 
principle, as it is possessed of a just revenue. 

For from hence not only magnanimity, and lib- 
erality, and beneficence, and fortitude, and pro- 
vidence, and the tutelary protection of all good 
arts derive their food, and the growth of their or- 
gans ; but continence, and self-denial, and labor, 
and vigilance, and frugality, and whatever else 
there i's in which the mind shows itself above the 
appetite, are no where more in their proper ele- 
ment than in the provision and distribution of the 
public wealth. 

It is therefore not without reason that the sci- 
ence of speculative and practical finance, which 
must take to its aid so many auxiliary branches 
of knowledge, stands high in the estimation not 
only of the ordinary sort, but of the wisest and 
best men ; and as this science has grown with 
the progress of its object, the prosperity and im- 
provement of nations has generally increased 

2 F 



f 18 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

with the increase of their revenues ; and they will 
both continue to grow and flourish, as long as the 
balance between what is left to strengthen the ef- 
forts of individuals, and what is collected for the 
common efforts of the state, bears a due recip- 
rocal proportion, and they are both kept in a close 
correspondence and communication with each 
other. 

And perhaps it may be owing to the greatness 
of revenues, and to the urgency of state-necessi- 
ties, that old abuses in the constitution of finances 
are discovered, and their true nature and rational 
theory come to be more peifectly understood; in- 
somuch that a small revenue might have been 
more distressing in one period than a far greater 
is found to be in another ; the proportionate 
wealth even remaining the same. 

The objects then of a financier are to secure ait 
ample revenue; to impose it with judgment and 
equality; to employ it economically ; and when 
necessity obliges him to make use of credit, to se- 
cure its foundations in that instance, and for ever 
by the clearness and candor of his proceedings, 
the exactness of his calculations, and the solidity 
of his funds." 

If then the facts unfolded to view in the prece- 
ding pages demonstrate that the agriculture, com- 
merce, and manufactures of Britain are now more 
extensive and flourishing than ever ; that her na- 
tional capital and national revenue is far greater 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &€. 219 

and the condition of all her people far better than 
at any former period of time ; and that her public 
iinances are built upon a solid, and indestructible 
basis of permanent strength and of progressive im- 
proveaientj and above all, that her annual accu- 
mulations of capital from the yearly produce of 
her land and labor and the profits of her stock, 
greatly exceeds the amount of all her annual ex- 
penditure ; it must be evident to all calm and 
impartial observers that the British empire is now 
less liable to national bankruptcy than at any pre- 
ceding epoch of her history. 



THIRD DIVISION. 



CHAPTER I. 

The supposed recent annihilation of the Aus- 
trian empire by the arms of Bonaparte seems to 
have struck the minds of men in the United States 
from off their usual poise of steadiness and discre- 
tion 5 and they in general now conclude that Bri- 



-220 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

tain must speedily pass under the yoke of France, 
because the Corsican tyrant has beaten the Arch- 
duke Charles upon the banks of the Danube. 

Before entering upon the inquiry as to the power 
of Britain to stand up alone, and single-handed 
against her formidable adversary, I shall examine 
the probable results of the subjugation of the 
British empire ; in regard to the condition of its 
own peoplej of the world at large ; and more par- 
ticularly of the Federal Republic of America. 

This investigation is the more necessary, be- 
cause many respectable politicians in this coun- 
try openly avow their conviction that the reduc- 
tion of Britain into a province of France will ma- 
terially increase the wealth, prosperity, and com- 
merce of the whole world, by breaking down the 
present trading monopoly usurped by England ; 
(as if fl// monopolies were not invariably losing 
concerns,) and above all will enrich the United 
States by throwing a large share of the plunder 
into their lap ; in consequence of their strict at- 
tachment and unalterable friendship to France 
through all the changes of her government. And 
that even if Bonaparte should happen to prove 
ungrateful to his most faithful allies, and endea- 
vor to subdue them also under his dominion, 
their valor and wisdom would etfectually defeat 
all his efforts, although he should come to the in- 
vasion of these States with all the military popula- 
tion of Europe at his heels. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 221 

The effects which such a calamity would pro- 
duce upon the British people themselves, I choose 
to depict in the words of the Edinburgh Review- 
ers, not merely on account of the magnificent 
display of talent and of information which they 
uniformly exhibit upon every great subject of na- 
tional policy ; but more particularly because they 
are the great literary champions of the whig party 
in Britain ; and that party, during the last twenty 
years, have always guarded themselves with most 
especial caution against gliding into any exagger- 
ated account of the resources and comforts of 
their own country ; or into any depreciation^ of 
the terrible power and matchless political wisdom 
of France. 

In the 10th volume of the Edinburgh Review, 
p. 3, 406, we are told " that so far from being a 
country, the measure of whose sufferings is full, 
and to which every change must be gain, it is ob- 
vious on a very slight consideration, that Britain 
has attained a greater portion of happiness and 
of civil liberty than have ever before been enjoyed 
by any other nation j and that the frame and ad- 
ministration of her polity is with all its defects the 
most perfect and beneficial of any that men have 
yet invented and reduced to practice. 

Her people have perfect liberty of person and 
security of property; they have an administration 
of law, both civil and criminal, that is not only im- 
partial, but unsuspected; they have freedom of 



222 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

speech and of publication beyond what any other 
people ever exi)erienced ; they have wealth, atid 
police, and moralit}^ superior to any other coun- 
try; and they have no privileged orders possessing 
a monopoly of the honors and dignities of the 
state. 

These advantages they have attained under their 
present system of government, and under it there 
is no reason to doubt that they will be preserved 
to them unimpaired. It is plain therefore that so 
far from having little to lose by conquest or revo- 
lution they have infinitely more than was ever pos- 
sessed by any other people; and that as the good 
which they already have, greatly exceeds that of 
which they are deprived, it would be in the highest 
degree criminal and imprudent to expose it to the 
desperate hazard of increasing it by the uncertain 
issue of a revolution. 

The country which enjoys these advantages must 
be worth fighting for, whatever may be the defects 
of its government. This is our first position. Our 
second is, that the government cannot be utterly 
bad and detestable, under which these advanta- 
ges have been obtained and secured for so long a 
period. 

Without dwelling on the horrors of the conquest 
itself, or on the proscriptions and confiscations* 
with which it would infallibly be attended, suppose 
the great work of subjugating Britain to be finally 
consummated by France; and then estimate the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 223 

changes which would be produced in the condition 
of the surviving population. 

The first would be the transfer of the British 
sceptre to the hands of some creature of the con- 
queror; or the total suppression of the national in- 
dependence of Britain by its conversion into a pro- 
vince or department of his empire. The last 
change is the most probable, because the insular 
situation, maritime habits, and untractable charac- 
ter of the British might otherwise give them an 
opportunity of recovering their freedom, and con- 
verting a nominal into a real independence. 

In either event, the free constitution of England 
would be annihilated. It is this freedom, more 
than the commercial prosperity, or the national 
influence of Britain, which excites the alarm and 
jealousy of Bonaparte ; it exhales a vapour un- 
healthful to the constitution of despotism, and 
while England is free the master of France must 
be uneasy. Britain might still have parliaments, 
however, and mock elections ; but we may infer 
the measure of power which would be left to those 
assemblies, from that which we have seen intrusted 
to the senates of France and Holland. 

The consequences of conquest, however, would 
first come home to individuals m the destruction of 
their laws and personal privileges. No one can. 
be so extravagant as to imagine that a French 
government would allow a habeas corpus, a jury ^ or 
a goal-delivery to its English subjects. They can- 



224 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

not hope for more than it indulges to its own peo- 
ple. The liberty of the press in France, too, may 
be safely taken as the measure of what it would 
be in England ; and in comparison with the tyran- 
ny now exercised there in this respect, the policy 
of the inquisition, the Sorbonne, and the Bourbons 
was perfect freedom. Their interference was mere- 
ly restrictive or prohibitory ; but the present gov- 
ernor of France compels its journalists to publish 
as well as to suppress whatever he pleases. He 
has personal quarrels too with the English press, 
which could not be settled by mere prospective 
regulations. There are more than Peltier who 
might meet with the fate of Palm. 

The next thing which the British would lose 
would be the security of personal liberty. They 
must then lay aside that high sense of personal in- 
violability which they now cherish so fondly ; and 
what is justly prized still more, the sanctity of their 
homes. The Englishman's house must be his cas- 
tle no more. Instead of their humble watchmen, 
to wish them respectful good-night, when return- 
ing to their abodes in the evening, they would be 
challenged at every turning by military patroles, 
and be fortunate if they met no pert boy in com- 
mission, or ill-natured trooper, to rebuke them 
with the back of his sword, or with a lodging in 
the guard house, for a heedless or a tardy reply. 

And after all when they arrived at their homes, 
instead of that quiet fire-side at which they expect- 



fiANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. ^225 

ed to sit. in Hompsfif privacy with their wives 
and children, and relieve their burthened hearts by 
sighing with them over the sorrows of their coun- 
try, they might find some ruffian familiars of the 
police on a domiciliary visit; or some insolent 
young officers who have stepped in unasked to re- 
lieve their tedium while on guard by the conver- 
sation of the wives and daughters of the neighbor- 
ing British house-holders. It would be danger- 
ous, however, to offend such unwelcome guests, ot 
even not to treat them with all the respect due to 
brave warriors, who have served under Napoleon 
the Great. 

But should the English escape such intruders 
for the evening, still they must lie down uncertain 
if their dwellings would be left unviolated till the 
morning. A tremendous noise would at midnight 
rouse the father of a family from his sleep, and he 
would hear a harsh voice commanding him to open 
the gate, through which its hapless master must 
pass to return no more. 

The mostdi-^astrous effect of conquest, however^ 
would be the annihilation of national and indivi-« 
dual opulence. The mere destruction of the 
funds would beggar an incredible multitude; but 
the trade and the riches of England would infalli- 
bly perish with the destruction of its security for 
property, its equal laws, its colonies, and com- 
manding navy. It is only necessary to consider 
how much greater and more powerful Britain \p 



226 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

at this moment than her population or extent of 
territory would naturally have made her; to see 
how much more she would lose in losing her inde- 
pendence than any other nation could possibly 
lose. 

She would fall like Tyre or Carthage if the 
foundation of her commercial greatness were once 
withdrawn. The quantity of domestic misery 
which would be produced in such a population as 
that of Britain, by this vast and general impover- 
ishment, surpasses all calculation. This point 
ought to be well considered by all those who 
thu)k that industry is secure of its reward in eve- 
r civilized society, and that it is mere romance 
for people in the middling condition of life to fight 
for political privileges, or for the choice of their 
rulers. 

The rigors of a suspicious provincial military 
government, would be also displayed in full force 
over the politicians of conquered England. Her 
mobs and her clubs, and even her coifee-house 
conversations would be effectually broken up by 
the sabre and the b;iyonet. Sanguinary punish- 
ments would repress the newly mvented crimes of 
suspected disatfection and sedition ; and the happy 
invention of military conscription would take off 
the turbulent part of the British youth to recruit 
tin legions of their master, and to extend his con- 
quests m another quarter of the globe. 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. ^27 

Add to all this the destruction of relio^ioas lib- 
erty, and the compulsory restitution of popery in 
Britain, as an immediate consequence of her sub- 
jugation; because the universality of that faiih 
would be very convenient for an emperor who 
keeps the pope at his own disposal ; and the c<>n- 
stitution and doctrine of many of the protestant 
churches would be peculiarly oiFensive to an abso- 
lute sovereign. 

The last great evil incident to Britain from her 
bondage to France, would be the general disso- 
luteness of manners, resulting partly from the de- 
basement uniformly produced by loss of liberty, 
but chiefly from the contagion of that profligate 
and licentious soldiery which would be quartered 
over all the land, and would naturally take the 
lead whenever their example could be seducing 
or pernicious. 

Such are the obvious and tremendous evils that 
must inevetably fall on Britain if she yield to the 
fate which has overtaken the greater part of the 
continent of Europe, and be subjugated by the 
arms of France. There is no fancy, unfortunate- 
ly, and no exaggeration in this statement ; every 
article of it is supported by precedents ; every tint 
is coloured from the life. It is even a softened 
delineation; for no allowance is made for the pe- 
culiar rancor and hostility with which Bonaparte 
has always avowed himself to be actuated towards 
England more than toward any other of his oppo>- 
nents." 



gas HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 



CHAPTER 11. 

Nevertheless, say our advocates for universal 
benevolence and the general good, although 
Britain w^ill undoubtedly suffer all, and more than 
all these evils, by her being reduced to a state of 
slavery by France, yet in the first place she rich- 
ly deserves it on account of her long continued 
maritime superiority and coumjercial ntuiiopoly ; 
and secondly, the world at large and the United 
States in particular will become more opulent and 
prosperous in consequence of the entire annihila- 
tion of the present mistress of the ocean. This 
point requires examination. 

How far the world at large is likely to be en- 
riched by the destruction of Britain, and the con- 
sequent perdition of all that living labor, that pro- 
ductive industry, v/hich she novv' puts in motion 
over every region of the globe, by the security 
which she affords to property, and the certainty 
of reward which she holds out to all kinds of use- 
ful exertion ; and by the substitution of Bona- 
parte's bloody niilitary despotism in the room of 
her commercial policy-— may be inferred from the 
following character of the French and of their gov- 
ernment, drawn by one who knows them well, 
who has had the most favorable ojjportunities of 
studying them intimately, and is fully competent 
to offer to the public the result of his information. 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 229 

*• As to morals, which in the absence of all pos- 
itive legal institutions, supply their place by a 
very powerful influence, the people of France 
and the government of France are totally with- 
out any system. They are the first nation in the 
world which has rendered variable what nature 
intended to be eternal; which has converted vir- 
tue into sophistry, and brought under disputatioa 
and logical scepticism the first elements of truth, 
and the most sure securities of social peace. 

Morals, in the eye of Frenchmen constitute » 
taste, a fashion, a modp, varying according to the 
circumstances of the day. All moral obligation 
is gone ; it is not acknowledged in practice. At 
the very best, the first principles of morality are 
regarded merely as simple truths ; as totally unim- 
portant and without value in action. Even honor, 
the best gift of the feudal system, in many points 
a sufficient, in almost all a useful substitute of 
natural morality, does not exist in the system of 
France. In a word, the three great principles of 
human action j the three great restraints on vice 
and passion ; namely, relii2;ion, morality, and hon- 
or, have all perished in France. 

The system of jacobinism has been followed by 
that of military despotism. The principles of 
action have taken the same course. France 
as a nation, and every Frenchman individually, 
has the morals of a soldier, a slave, and a sophist; 
pfone who believes nothing wit^h sufficient faith to 



§30 HINTS ON THE KATlONAL 

induce him to adopt it as a principle of action 5 
of one who systematically trusts his reason, and 
servilely obeys his fears, his passions and his im- 
mediate interest, who would trust such an individ- 
ual ? who cotdd confide in sue h a nation ? 

As to the manners of the present race of French- 
men the picture is still more abhorrent. The niaiio 
ners of a nation are its minor morals ; or rather per- 
haps its action through the daily intercourse of mo- 
rals in life and domestic society. The manners in 
France, therefore, at the present day are such as 
are suited to its morals. The shadow is as deformed 
as the substance from which it is projected. Their 
private is at least as bad as their public virtue. 
They are as bad husbands, fathers, friends, neigh- 
bors, masters, and dependants, as they are citi- 
zens. 

Break their general character into all possible 
fragments, and every component atom will be 
found of the same precise quality as the general 
mass. Nor is this state of things temporary. 
There is an action and a redaction which tends to 
continue it. The state corrupts the individual ; 
and the individual supplies the stock of corruption 
to the state. Each mutually feeds and is fed. 
The minor streams, corrupting as they tlow, re- 
turn to swell the grand national reservoir, which 
overflows in its turn with an augmented force of 
venom, and assimilates to itself whatever it 
touches. 



BANKRUPTCV OF BRITAIN, &C. 251 

Such is the civil despotism of the Fretich gov- 
epnment. The five means of control, and secu- 
rities of a moderate exercise of the sovereign pow- 
er, namely, constitution, an aristocracy of privi- 
leged classes and acknowledged corruptions, long 
usage, morals, and manners, have no existence, 
O??^ supreme will governs every thing. Treaties 
are without sanction ; and the public faith is the 
private virtue of one who has effected every thing 
by his contempt and disregard of truth. 

Regarded in its second point of view, as a mili-^ 
tary despotism, the French form of government is 
still more worthy of attention. Bonaparte is the 
Genghis Khan of Europe. He knows no law 
but the sword, no legislative assembly but the 
camp. The sword is his sceptre, the camp is his 
cabinet. Uniting the military simplicity of the 
Tartar conquerors with the military science of 
Europe, he rests not a moment from his martial 
habits ; he is ever in a state to take the field in the 
very instant of his necessity. 

In peace as in war he is in a state 'of encamp- 
ment; and the whole resources of his nation are 
as ready at his call as is the sword which hangs 
suspended in its sheath by his side. He is in ever}'' 
sense of the word a conqueror and a military- 
monarch. His system of rule is that of the feu- 
dal system purged of its ancient weakness. Hft 
is an emperor, and an emperor in the strictest 
sense of the word> as employed in the lower Re- 



iS^ HTNTS ON TEE NATIONAL 

man empire; an emperor at the head of confede- 
rated officers, all connected with their chief and 
with each other by a common interest ; — an em- 
peror elected by his fortune and his guards, gov- 
erning his people with military despotism, and 
retaining his army by military discipline. 

His prefects and officers are but so many Ce- 
sars who govern the distant provinces under their 
patron and political father, the great Augustus. 
This system of empire, as it is founded, so it 
must be retained by conquest. Like the princi- 
ple of motion it ceases to exist when it ceases to 
proceed. It has moreover a still more fatal char- 
acteristic. The adage ancient as the world, mole 
met Slid, it will ruish into perdition by its own im- 
mensity of bulk, does not apply to the present 
empire of France. It easily admits of accession. 
If another kingdom be added, it requires but ano- 
ther prefect. 

The history of mankind is as uniform as are the 
materials of human action. This empire must 
sooner or later be overturned by the jealousies of 
the confederate princes. But from its present and 
immediate energy it will in time overthrow every 
thing around it. Kingdom after kingdom will fall 
into its mass, until, having destroyed every 
thing about it, it will terminate by preying 
on itself. A new system will then succeed. The 
present monarchs of Europe are the fragments of 



feANKRUPTCt OF BRITAIN, &C. ^33 

the feudal system. When the military system, 
under which Europe must now suffer for some 
-ages, shall in its turn become split and shattered, 
our posterity will behold new forms of empire, 
and modes of rule, which political prophecy, 
vainly endeavoring to pierce through the mists 
of time, cannot even dimly discern in the distance. 

From the personal character of Bonaparte, the 
human imagination, accustomed to the ordinary 
course of naiure, averts with incredulous abhor- 
rence. Every age has its standard of vice and of 
virtue. The atrocity of the age of Tiberius was 
not to be expected in the nineteenth century. 
Human. reason, as it was supposed, and is still as- 
serted by our philosophists, had made great pro- 
gress in the lapse of successive ages; had kept 
pace at least with the precession of the equinox 5 
had advanced with the maturity of nature. 

And if this even admitted of a doubt, the im- 
mediate gift of Providence himself, his last best 
gift to man, the spirit of Christianity, had passed 
over the surface of the moral world, and had sof- 
tened the venom of original malignity and prime=- 
val sin. It was not therefore to be expected, that 
the course of time, returning by a backward cur- 
rent, should re-produce in the nineteenth century 
all those combinations of perfidy and violence, 
which distinguished and deformed the periods that 
have long been known by the emphatical appella- 
tion of the dark ages. This prodigy of another 
age, however, has appeared amongst us." 

3h 



SI34 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

It is very remarkable that so early as the yeaf 
1790, when all the ordinary statesmen, all the vul- 
gar politicians on the earth, were hailing the 
revolutionary struggles of France as the harbin- 
gers of a bright and a lasting day of freedom to 
Europe and to the world, Mr. Burke, standing 
upon the vantage-ground of superior political wis- 
dom, should have left upon record, as an eternal 
monument of instruction to all posterity, an intelli- 
gible prediction, that the wild disorder of Gallic 
democracy would terminate in the most horrible 
and unrelenting military despotism which ever 
sported with the happiness of human beings. 

*' The legislators who framed the ancient repub- 
lics, knew that their business was too arduous to 
be accomplished with no better apparatus than 
the metaphysics of an under-graduate, and the 
mathematics and arithmetic of an exciseman. 
They had to do with men, and they were obliged to 
study human nature. They had to do with citizens, 
and the}' v^ere obliged to study the effects of those 
habits which are communicated by the circum- 
stances of civil life. 

They were sensible that the operation of this 
second nature on the first, produces a new combi- 
nation ; and thence arises many diversities amongst 
men, according to their birth, their education, 
their professions, the periods of their lives, their 
residence in towns or in the country, their several 
ways of acquiring and of fixing property, and ac-* 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &e. Q35 

cording to the quality of the property itself ; all 
which rendered them, as it were, so many different 
species of animals. 

From hence they thought themselves obliged to 
dispose their citizens into such classes, and to 
place them in such situations in the state, as their 
peculiar habits might qualify them to fill ; and to 
allot to them such appropriated privileges as might 
secure to them what their specific occasions re- 
quired, and which might furnish to each descrip- 
tion such force as might protect it in the conflict 
caused by the diversity of interests, that must ex- 
ist, and must contend in all complex society. For 
the legislator would have been ashamed, that the 
coarse husbandman should well know how to as- 
sort and to use his sheep, horses, and oxen ; and 
should have enough of common sense not to ab- 
stract and equalise them all into animals without 
providing for each kind an appropriate food, care, 
and employment ; whilst he, the political econo- 
mist, disposer and shepherd of his own kindred, 
subliming himself into an airy metaphysician, was 
resolved to know nothing of his flocks but as men 
in general. 

It is for this reason that M. Montesquieu ob- 
serves very justly, that in their classificatmi of the 
citizens the great legislators of antiquity made 
the greatest display of their powers, and even 
soared above themselves. It is here that our mo- 
dern legislators have gone deep into the negative 
series, and sunk even below their own nothing. 



S3(> HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

As the ancient legislators attended to the d'fFer- 
ent kinds of citizens, and combined them into one 
commonwealth ; the modern, the metaphysical 
and alchemistical legislators have taken the direct 
contrary course. They attempt to confound all 
sorts of citizens into one homogeneous mass, re- 
ducing them all to the dead level of democracy ; 
and then they divide this their amalgama into a 
number of incoherent republics. They reduce 
men to loose counters, merely for the sake of sim- 
ple telling ; and not to figures whose power is to 
arise from their place in the table. 

The elements of their own metaphysics might 
have taught them better lessons. The roll of their 
categorical table might have informed them that 
there was something else in the intellectual world 
besides substance and quantity. They might learn 
from the catechism of metaphysics that there were 
eight heads more in every complex deliberation, 
of which they have never thought; though these 
of all the ten are the subjects on which the skill 
of man can at all operate. 

But so far from this able disposition of some of 
the old republican legislators, which follows with 
a solicitous accuracy the moral conditions and 
propensities of man, the Fi^ench politicians have 
levelled and crushed together all the orders which 
they found even under the coarse inartificial ar- 
rangement of their old monarchy ; in which 
inode of government the classing of their citizens 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 3S7 

is not of so much importance as in a republic. It 
is true, however, that every such classification, if 
properly ordered, is good in all forms of govern- 
ment ; and composes a strong barrier against the 
excesses of despotism, as well as it is the necessary 
means of giving effect and permanence to a repub- 
lic. 

For want of something of this kind, if the pre- 
sent project of a French republic should fail, all 
securities to a moderated freedom fail along with 
it J all the indirect restraints which mitigate des- 
potism are removed ; insomuch that if monarchy 
should ever again obtain an entire ascendency in 
France, under this, or under any other dynasty, 
it will be, if not voluntarily tempered at its set- 
ting out by the wise and virtuous counsels of the 
prince, the most completely arbitrary power that has 
ever appeared on earth. This is to play a most 
desperate game." 

From all this it might be readily inferred how 
much the industry and wealth of nations would 
be promoted and increased by diffusing the do- 
mination of Bonaparte over all the civilized world. 
It is sufficiently natural for the present tyrant of 
France, and for his partisans, to exclaim incessant- 
ly, that if Britain were but destroyed the other 
nations of the earth would be enriched by divid- 
ing that wealth which her monopolizing spirit 
now engrosses ; because it is the first desire of 
Bonaparte's heart to destroy the British empire, as 



238 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

the only obstacle between him and universal do* 
minion ; and because it is equally the expectation 
of his partisans that they shall be permitted to 
share in the plunder acquired by their master. 

But it is strange that men, even of ordinary re- 
flection, do not perceive, that if Britain were to 
be destroyed, the aggregate of the whole world's 
wealth, industry, spirit, enterprise, intelligence, 
morality, religion, and every thing which condu- 
ces to human prosperity and happiness, would be 
dreadfully diminished ; because they derive mate- 
rial aid from the superior freedom, virtue, talent, 
and knowledge of the British nation under its pre- 
sent form of government. 

Now foreign conquest would infallibly bring 
along with it slavery, vice, and ignorance, which 
would immediately dry up the springs and sour- 
ces of agriculture, of manufactures, of commerce, 
and of ewfiry species of productive industry ; would 
immediately palsy all the physical, intellectual, 
moral, and spiritual energies of Britain, who is 
now the great central pivot upon which all the la- 
bor that can have any tendency to meliorate the 
condition of human society in the whole world 
turns; and would thus convert the universal earth 
into one vast wilderness of death. 

This subject is treated at considerable length, 
and with great ability by M. Gentz, late counsel- 
lor of war to the king of Prussia, in a work entitled 
^ De Vctat de V Europe avant et apres a la Revolution 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &e. 239 

JFrangaisey pour servir de response a Vecrif, intitule, 
De Vet at de la France y a la fin de Van. 8." But as 
some positions of the Prussian Statesman are not 
sufficiently developed, and the whole book is writ- 
ten with somewhat of Germanic tediousness and 
minuteness, I prefer having recourse to the supe- 
rior political intelligence of the Edinburgh Re- 
view. Vol. 2, p. (5, 19, 25. 

M. Hauterive asserts that the destruction of 
all order and prosperity in Europe is caused by 
the vast increase of British commerce and colonies 
during the last century. 

*' But the increase of commerce is a necessary 
consequence of that salutary development of na- 
tional w^ealth and prosperity, to which human so- 
ciety naturally tends under any system of just ad- 
ministration ; it is beneficial to the country where 
it begins, and harmless at least to all its neigh- 
bors. It affords them not only example and en- 
couragement, but the means of imitation and im- 
provement ; and can never be viewed with jeal- 
ousy or resentment, except by that envy which 
despairs of emulation, or that barbarous pride 
which had rather that its associates should fall, 
than be indebted to them for its own elevation. 

Besides, the increased resources that have been 
derived from the extension of the commercial sys- 
tem have been in some degree common to all na- 
tions, and have rather bettered the condition of 
the whole, than altered the relations of its parts. 



240 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

That some have been outstripped by others in this 
free and honorable competition, ought no more to 
be made the subject of resentment or complaint, 
than that one nation has amended its laws, or refor- 
med its constitution, with greater diligence and 
dispatch than its neighbors. 

In point of fact, the advantages that may be as- 
cribed to the extension of colonies or commerce, 
never have been monopoW zed by any one nation 
of Europe ; but have belonged in a great degree 
to all the maritime states, and in particular, to 
France, England, and Holland, in pretty equal 
proportions. When we consider indeed what 
France was both in America and in India, within 
half a century, and the prodigious advantages' 
which she still had until very lately in the Levant 
trade, and that of the West-Indies, it is surprising 
that a French writer should inveigh with so much 
bitterness agamst colonies and commerce, and 
represent the balance of power in Europe as i?t 
danger from the preponderence of England, merely 
because she possesses a part of those advantages 
which were formerly enjoyed with safety by the 
continental kingdom of France. 

The maritime powers, too, form a sort of secon- 
dary balance among themselves, and will in gene- 
ral throw their united force into the scale, to pre- 
vent the disturbance of the greater system to 
which they adhere. Their chief interest on the 
continent of Europe must always be to maintain 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 241 

that general balance; and if their commerce has 
increased their weight and authority, this is a cir- 
cumstance which only tends to make that balance 
more secure. Had it not been for the maritime 
resources of Holland and England it is not easy 
to perceive in what way the European continen- 
tal powers could have resisted the attacks of Louis 
the fourteenth. 

With regard to the foreign relations of Britain, 
they may be all referred to the head of commer- 
cial regulations ; and she has in fact no permanent 
connection with the continent of Europe either 
in military or strictly political affairs. As a mari- 
time nation, she can never be led away by views 
of continental conquest; and as a commercial 
power, she must be interested in the maintenance 
of that general peace, by which alone the great 
markets of the world can be kept open to the pro- 
duce of her industry. 

Yet M. Hauterive represents her as constantly 
engaged in fomenting dissensions among the Eu- 
ropean continental powers; bribing them into 
hostility by her subsidies ; and holding their in- 
dustry and commerce in subjugation by the arbi- 
trary and oppressive exertions of her naval power. 

A sufficient refutation of this assertion is to be> 
found in the history of the last hundred and fifty 
years, which wnll show that all the wars in vvhicU 
Britain has been engaged have either been wars 
in support of the balance of Europe^ when endarj- 

^ I 



242 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

gered by the ambition of France ; or wars in which 
the quarrel was particular to the two nations, and 
arose from some misunderstanding as to the regu- 
lation of their trade or their colonies. 

In the wars for the support of the balance of 
Europe, the exertions of England have been bene* 
ficial to all her neighbors ; and in the quarrels pe* 
culiar to the two nations, her efforts have been al-r 
together indifferent to the other powers, and can 
afford no pretext for invoking the general ven- 
geance on her head. 

' The wars against Louis the fourteenth require 
no explanation, nor does the conduct of Britain in 
the course of them demand any apology. The 
war of the Austrian succession was undertaken by 
England upon the same general principle of pre- 
venting the undue humiliation of that ancient mon- 
archy ; and the generosity with which she gave 
up every thing at the peace, by which her private 
interest might have been promoted, demonstrates 
by what liberal motives she had been induced to 
enter into the contest. 

The seven years war, commonly called Lord 
Chatham's war, on the part of Britain, was partly 
a war in defence of the general system of balance, 
then exposed to such manifest danger by the coali- 
tion against the king of Prussia; and partly a pri- 
vate quarrel between France and England on ac- 
count of their North American colonies. It turn- 
ed out gloriously for Britain, and France has never 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &:c. 243 

forgiven her for the humiliation and loss to which 
she was obliged to submit j although that loss and 
humiliation, which related merely to her colonies 
and her marine, had no effect upon her power and 
influence over the continent of Europe. 

In the succeeding war of America, the cause of 
contest was peculiar to the two countries, France 
and England, and indifferent to the rest of Europe. 
Here the success was on the side of France ; she 
retorted on her adversary the loss of her American 
colonies, and proved that her maritime resources 
were in no respect inferior to those of her indus> 
trious rival. 

As to the charge of fomenting wars by subsidi- 
zing the weaker continental powers of Europe, it 
is a most contemptible vulgar prejudice, which 
could only originate in ignorance or in animosity. 
No subsidy ever paid the third part of the mere 
expense which was occasioned by a war, to the 
nation that received it ; and if any valuation could 
be put upon the loss of lives and of happiness, on 
the prosperity and opulence, both general and in- 
dividual, that it must necessarily have intercepted, 
we might justly say, that no subsidy ever replaced 
one hundredth part of what the war had taken 
away. 

Subsidies may facilitate the operations of war, 
but can never give occasion to it. They form a 
natural and salutary part of those arrangements 
by which allied nations equalise their contribu- 



HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

tious to the common cause j but the statesman who 
could he tempted by them to engage in a war» 
■when he might have remained in peace, must know' 
liitle of the nature of war, and nothing of the du- 
ties of his station." 

For a very full and clear exposition of the nature 
and mtention of the balancing systeniy and the 
most conclusive arguments to prove its vast im- 
portance in preserving the civilized world from 
deslrucrion ; the reader will do well to consult, 
and to study the first section of the third book of 
Mr. Brougham's masterly '*' Inquiry into the Colo- 
nial Policy of the European powers,'' vol. 2d. p.. ■ 
192, 285, both inclusive. 

" The whole substance of the abuse which M. 
Hauterive heaps upon Britain on account of her 
maritime superiority, may be reduced to these 
three heads : — 1st. That by her Navigation Act, 
she has excluded all other nations from the benefits 
of her trade : — 2dly. That she has usurped the 
possession of all the commercial establishments of 
the world, and after having put fetters on the in- 
dustry of every other nation, has established over 
them a most tyrannous and oppressive monopoly : 
and 3dly. That she has invented a new code of 
maritime laws, by which the rights of neutrality- 
are violated, as often as she is at war." 

I shall altogether decline entering upon any dis- 
cussion of the third head at present, because I shall 
shortly have occasion to treat at large upon the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. ^45 

great question of neutral rights in another public 
cation, where I shall endeavor to develop the 
whole system of policy, foreign and domestic, of 
the United States. Only the first two heads, 
therefore, of M. Hauterive's accusations against 
Britain, will be now examined. 

"1. M. Gentz, at great length, but with much 
force and clearness, explains the origin and de- 
sign of the famous statute of Charles the second, 
commonly called the English navigation act, of 
which the European continental politicians have 
spoken and written so much in all the bitterness 
of resentment and complaint, without in the least 
understanding its nature and aim. He then pro- 
ceeds to show upon the clearest and most gene- 
rally admitted principles of political economy, that 
the operation of this act has been directly detri- 
mental to the commerce of Britain ; and that its con- 
tinuance on the score of policy, can only be justi- 
fied from its tendency to promote the naval strength 
of the country, upon which its security so imme- 
diately depends, and to which every thing else 
ought therefore to be subordinate. 

The commercial greatness of England, there- 
fore, has arisen in spite of this law, and not in 
consequence of it ; and the jealousy which that 
greatness has excited is erroneously directed 
against this famous statute. And even if its con- 
sequences were prejudicial to other nations, they 
have no right to complain of its injustice. It is 



!246 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

not an international law in which they have any- 
intermediate concern^ but a private regulation of 
internal police, with which France has as little 
concern as England could have with a French 
statute requiring all Bonaparte's soldiers to be 
natives of his own territory." 

M. Gentz explains the effects of the English na- 
vigation act, in p. 295, 308, of his important work. 
I have only leisure to avail myself of a very iew 
of his observations. 

" It is, generally speaking, true that laws are pre- 
judicial when they impede or restrict the natural 
course and free expansion of human industry; when 
they forcibly impel it into new channels, or direct 
it where it would not naturally have flowed ; when 
they urge its progress at the expense of its free- 
dom. 

The navigation act is a law of this nature. Tt 
compels the inhabitant of Britain to fetch the 
products of foreign countries in his ov/n vessels, 
or to remain entirely or nearly without them. It 
obliges him, therefore, to devote a larger portion 
of capital and labor to foreign trade than he 
would have done in the natural course of things; 
if other nations had participated without restric- 
tion in the importation. It positively forbids 
him to employ the industry of a foreigner, even 
when it might suit his interest better than to em- 
ploy his own industry. It prevents him from 
purchasing certain articles abroad cheaper than 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 247 

he can get them at home. It prevents him from 
making use of foreign shipping, even in those 
cases where the freight is cheaper than that of his 
countrymen, and where he would consequently 
import the goods at a lower price. 

But circumstances sometimes render it the duty 
of a government to depart in particular cases from 
general principles of state economy ; when a tem- 
porary or a permanent interest urges considera- 
tions of more importance than any of the common 
maxims of administration. To circumstances of 
this imperious nature the English navigation act 
owes its being. In order to form a counterpoise 
to the powerful states of continental Europe; to 
protect her insular territory, and maintain her 
independence, England was obliged to use every 
effort to raise and support a powerful marine. 

The importance of the object justified even co- 
ercive laws; wt\(\ the navigation act is indirectly 
coercive in its nature and operation. The English 
were compelled to cultivate with their own vessels, 
their own sailors, and their own capitals, many 
branches of foreign trade which would have other- 
wise remained, partly or entirely, in the hands of 
strangers. This was a powerful stimulus to the 
commercial marine of Britain, which was thus 
rendered a nursery for her navy, and an impor- 
tant instrument of the security and power of the 
state; accomplishing these objects more rapidly 
and more effectually than if left to the natural 
course of things. 



24S HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

But according to the genuine principles of politi- 
cal economy, the navigation act which secures 
these important objects, is far from benefiting the 
industry of the nation, which indeed it restrains. In 
commerce the true interest of every nation requires 
an extensive competition, and the unrestrained 
liberty of buying and selling to the greatest ad- 
vantages afforded by its industry and situation. 
The navigation act infringes this liberty and di- 
minishes that competition. AV^hence, so far from 
being directly beneficial, it is indirectly detrir 
mental to the foreign trade of Britain. 

This law then is not the foundation of English 
commercial greatness, which has arisen in spite 
of, and not by means of, the operation of this act. 
If such a law had been passed in any other coun- 
try, destitute of the natural advantages, character, 
and resources of Britain, it would have been the 
signal for the immediate annihilation of commerce j 
the suppression of all industry; the destruction of 
every incentive to enterprise and activity. 

This famous act was passed in the year 1651, 
during CromweH's protectorate, and confirmed 
by Charles the second in 1660; its chief provisions 
are : — 1st, No ship, unless it be British property, 
commanded by a British captain, and having at 
least three-fourths of its crew British, shall trade 
with the British colonies, or on the coast of Bri- 
tain : — 2dly. No foreign vessel shall bring any 
goods to England, unless tfcey are the produce of 



Bankruptcy of Britain, &c. ^4§ 

the country, to which the owner, the captain, and, 
at least three-fourths ofthe crew of such ship belong. 
3d]y. The importation of certain articles of foreign 
merchandise is prohibited both in British and for- 
eign ships. 4thly. No sea-fish, unless caught by 
British fishermen, and freighted on board British 
vessels, shall be imported into England." 

" As to the monopoly which Britain is accused of 
usurping or enjoying, in all the colonies and all 
the markets in the world, the advantages to which 
these odious names have been applied, are nothing 
more than the natural and fair rewards of supe- 
rior skill and industry ; and it would be an injury 
to the world at large if they were to be intercepted 
or withdrawn. They are prizes won in a free and 
honorable competition, where the success of the 
victor affords instruction to those who are left be- 
hind, and advances the general interest together 
with that of the individual. 

In point of fact, however, it is not true that 
Britain has engrossed all the trade and wealth of 
the world for this last century. In India, indeed, 
her V influence has preponderated over that of 
France, ever since the war of 1756; yet Holland 
still holds possessions in that quarter of great ex- 
tent and value ; and the establishments of France 
were rather neglected than insignificant, up td 
war of the Revolution. 

In the West-Indies both Spain and France were. 
im possession of settlements far more valuable 

i2 K 



'250 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

than those of England; and Holland and Den- 
mark had also their share in that lucrative com- 
merce. On the continent of America England 
retained nothing but Canada, Nova-Scotia, and 
New-Brunswick, while Spain and Portugal mono- 
polized the trade of a whole quarter of the globe ; 
and France shared largely with them in that oi 
the northern division of that quarter. 

In that part of the world Britain was only a 
power of the second or third order. In her colo- 
nial possessions, therefore, it is plain that she has 
enjoyed no great or decided superiority ; and it is 
equally plain, that in a political point of view, thq 
possession of these colonies adds scarcely any 
thing to her power. The richest of them all brings 
in no direct revenue to the government ; they pay 
no taxes; and it is only in their subserviency to 
her industry and trade that they have any value. 

The real source of the commercial greatness of 
England then is to be found in that honest industry 
and distinguished skill which will scarcely be im- 
puted to any nation as a crime ; and which her 
rivals should rather imitate than decry. Nay, it 
is very evident that they themselves constitute 
and support that monopoly of which they so loud-, 
ly complain. Who forces the nations of Europe 
to buy the manufactures of England, and to ne- 
glect their own .'' 

If it be a crime in Britain to sell, it must be 
doubly a crime in the other European powers to 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, hc. 251 

buy ; and if the European states have been en* 
thralled by the commercial policy of England, it 
is evident that they have formed the fetters for 
themselves, and put them on deliberately with 
their own hands. 

As to the charge of Britain having exerted her- 
self to depress and discourage the industry of all 
her neighbors, it is confuted by the absurdities 
which it involves. The rude and the beggarly can 
never be good customers ; and they who have no- 
thing to sell, will not long have any thing where- 
with to buy. England outstrips her neighbors in 
mechanical inventions and commercial activity ; 
and by means of these keeps the advantages of her 
pre-eminence ; but she can never desire to see her 
neighbors unskilful and indolent ; because she 
sells only to buy with advantage; and could not 
continue to subsist, if the surrounding countries 
did not supply her with commodities as valuable 
as those which she furnishes to them in return. 

If any part of British prosperity he referrible to 
the neglect and carelessness of other countries, 
who might have divided a part of those advantages 
which she now enjoys alone, this is their fault and 
their loss, and nothing but the profit and the praise 
is hers. They would not be better, although her 
enterprising spirit had not opened the sources of 
wealth which they overlooked ; and all the rest of 
the world would have been worse ; nay, they them- 
selves also would have been worse ; since her sue- 



252 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

cess must awaken their emulation and her disco- 
veries direct their undertakings. 

What is called the inonopohj of England, there- 
fore, is nothing else than the preference which 
good and cheap articles will always obtain in the 
market over those that are dear and defective. It 
is not imposed upon the other nations by England, 
but conferred by them upon her ; and as they thus 
contribute to it, in spite of violent prejudices, and 
in the midst of the most outrageous clamors, it 
may be presumed that they find their own ad- 
vantage in its continuance. In fact, it pro- 
motes their present prosperity, by supplying 
them with commodities at an easier rate than they 
could otherwise procure them ; and subserves their 
future greatness, by setting before them the most 
perfect patterns of manufacturing ingenuity, and 
of commercial wisdom. 

In addition to these permanent and inherent 
sources of British prosperity, the war itself has 
given birth to another very important aid to her 
national strength. The naval power of England, 
and the excellent regulation of her convoys, ren- 
der the seas safe tp her while they are impractica- 
ble to any other belligerent power. Nearly all 
the carrying irade, therefore, that was in the hands 
of Holland, Spain, and France, naturally fell into 
her's when the ships of those nations were confined 
to their harbors ; and thus became a new source of 
revenue to -answer the exigencies of her new 
situation. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C.. 253 

And as this was a benefit arising from the at- 
tempts of her enemies to injure her, and obtained 
in a great measure at their expense ; it is natural 
to suppose that their disappointment and vexation 
would make it the object of clamor and detrac- 
tion. But at the same time, it is perfectly evi- 
dent, that it is an event for which Britain cannot 
possibly be censured upon any principle either of 
equity or reason. 

For it was not brought about by any act of her 
usurpation or injustice ; but resulted spontane- 
ously from the interested wisdom of the neutral 
powers, who, until very lately, sought their safety 
in her protection ; and it has plainly been of advan- 
tage to all Europe, because it has given, up to 
the time of the issuing of Bonaparte's Berlin De- 
cree in December, 1806, a security and a freedom 
to her general commerce, which was scarcely to 
have been expected during the raging of a war so 
universal and so active. 

The iaw following considerations, and many 
more might be enumerated, will show the grounds 
of distinction between a naval and a military pow- 
er ; and also afford reasons for defending the mari- 
time supremacy of Britain, while we look with an 
eye of jealousy and apprehension on the military 
ascendancy of France. 

1% It is obvious that a maritime power can 
never endanger the independent existence of any 
other community, nor deprive it of its natural and 
inherent influence among its neighbors ; it can 



254 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

only intercept its commercial greatness by cutting 
off its foreig?itTSLde, A maritime power there- 
fore is formidable in a much less degree, and is 
a less reasonable object of general distrust and 
apprehension. 

2. But a maritime power can scarcely have any 
interest in cutting off the foreign trade or posses- 
sions of its neighbors. The ruin of their trade 
would be the ruin of its own commerce. Their 
possessions could not be occupied or retained 
without land forces ; and their mere destruction 
could produce no other effect than that of dimin- 
ishing the supply of those articles, the want of 
which would be felt more by a commercial than by 
any other country. 

Besides, the habits of a commercial country 
must generally be pacific; and war will usually be 
more injurious to a trading, than to any other 
state. Now no maritime power can render a na- 
tion absolutely invulnerable, or ensure its superi- 
ority against a combination of its enemies ; and 
the risk to which it would be exposed in such a 
contest is so terrible that it may fairly be presu- 
med that it will not provoke general hostility by 
any wanton act of usurpation. 

3. It ought to be remembered, as the great 
ground-work of all these distinctions, that mari- 
time power is the. natural, peaceful, and necessary 
result of great commercial prosperity ; and that it 
cannot be effectually diminished without checking 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 235 

that great career of improvement, the benefits anS 
blessings of which are far more important than any 
other with which they can be put in competition. 
The naval strength of a nation consists primarily 
in the number and the skill of its seamen ; and 
these again depend immediately on the extent of 
its trade. 

The trade, therefore, must be diminished before 
the power can be repressed. But it may well be 
questiomed, if any apprehension of problematical 
and coiitingent danger can justify a measure at- 
tended with so great and immediate evil. Power 
acquired by trade, should be as sacred among na- 
tions, as riches acquired by trade among individuals; 
and the fear of abuse from some occasional excess 
in either, can never afford an excuse for defraud- 
ing industry of its reward, or imposing a check 
upon that salutary spirit of commercial enterprise, 
which is the main source of all permanent im- 
provements among mankind. 

Naval power is not naturally a weapon of of- 
fence, but an implement of industry ; and the 
emergency must be great and urgent indeed, that 
could justify the destruction of so invaluable an 
implement, because it is capable of being con- 
verted into an engine of war. More benefit is de- 
rived to the world at large from the commercial 
prosperity in which a maritime power has its ori- 
gin, than would be compensated by the additional 
.security which some of its rivals might possibly 



^5d HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

acquire from the abolition of this power, and the 
overthrow of its foundations. 

To aim at the humiliation of such a naval pow- 
er, therefore, is to resist the development of gen- 
eral prosperity ; to discourage industry and all 
peaceful improvement ; and to conspire against 
the felicity of all future generations in every quar- 
ter of the world." 

In a word, it must be allowed that those men 
have very singular powers of perception and of 
reasoning, who really believe that the industry 
and wealth of the world would be increased by the 
reduction of Britain to a province of France ; and 
the consequent introduction of a most atrocious 
and bloody military despotism, into the room of a 
free and popular government ; the substitution of 
idleness for diligence; of fraud for honesty; of 
ignorance for intelligence; of stupidity for skill ; 
of universal profligacy and iniquity for sound and 
upright morals ; of the most unblushing atheism 
and impiety for pure religion. 

Fortunately, for our direction on this subject, 
Bonaparte has not left it to conjecture whether or 
not he designs to augment the industry and wealth 
of the world when he shall have subjugated it to 
his domination. For in the year 1 808, to a petition 
of the Bordeaux merchants, praying for a relaxa- 
tion of his Berlin, Milan, and Bayonne decrees, 
lest they should totally destroy the little remainder 
of French commerce;, he replied, " that it was the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 25? 

emperor^s will not to have any commerce, but to 
restore Europe to the condition of the fourth cen- 
tury." 

What that condition was, the reader may in 
some measure learn by perusing Mr. Gibbon's 
very elaborate dissertation, in the 3d. vol. of his 
" History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman 
Empire," p. 30 — 98. Indeed, if the extremes of 
the most unqalilied despotism on the part of the 
monarch, and the most abject slavery on the part 
of the people, together with the general decay of 
agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and the 
consequent penury and wretchedness of the great 
mass of the community, be desirable objects of 
restitution, we may pray for the destruction of 
Britain, and the universal jubilee of French da- 
mination. 

The mode oi taxation in this enlightened fourth 
century, would be particularly interesting to the 
people of the United States, a large body of whom 
actually broke out into an open and armed rebel- 
lion against their government for laying a small 
tax upon whiskey. In addition to all the various 
customs and duties on merchandises, which are 
imperceptibly discharged by the apparent choice 
of the purchaser, the policy of the great Constan- 
tine, which Bonaparte avows it to be his ambition 
to imitate, had recourse to a simple and direct 
mode of taxation, more congenial to the spirit of 
an arbitrary government. 



£58 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

"The obscure millions of a great empire haTe' 
much less to dread from the cruelty than from the 
avarice of their masters i and ///6'/r humble happi- 
ness is principally affected by the grievance of ex- 
cessive taxeSi which gently pressing on the digni- 
fied wealthy, descend with accelerated weight on 
the meaner and more indigent, 

M. de Montesquieu, indeed, as before observed, 
has calculated the universal measure of the public 
impositions by the degrees of freedom and of ser- 
vitude ; and asserts that according to an invariable 
law of nature, the weight of taxation must always 
increase with the augmentation of liberty, and 
diminish in a just proportion to the increase of 
despotism. But this assertion is not verified by 
the experience of the ancient Roman, any more 
than by that of the modern French despotism ; for 
the same tyrants that despoiled the senate of its 
authority, robbed the provinces of their wealth. 

The name and use of the imperial indictions 
were derived from the regular practice of the Ro- 
man tributes. The emperor subscribed with his 
own hand, and in purple ink, the solemn edict, 
decree, or indiction, which was fixed up in the 
principal city of each district, during two months 
previous to the first day of September. And by a 
very easy association of ideas, the word indiction 
was transferred to the measure of tribute which it 
prescribed, and to the annual term which it allow- 
ed for the payment. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 259 

This general estimate of the supplies was pro- 
portioned to the real and imaginary wants of the 
government ; but as often as the expense exceeded 
the revenue, or the revenue fell short of the com- 
putation, an additional tax, under the name of 
super indictiony was imposed on the people, and its 
amount committed to the discretion of the praeto- 
rian prefects, who, on some occasions, were author- 
ized to provide for the unforeseen and extraordi- 
nary exigencies of the public service. 

The execution of these laws consisted of two 
distinct operations ; the resolving the general im- 
position into its constituent parts, which were as- 
sessed on the provinces, the cities, and the individ- 
uals of the Roman world ; and the collecting the 
separate contributions of the individuals, the cities, 
and the provinces, until the accumulated sums 
were poured into the imperial treasury. 

The whole landed property of the empire was 
the object of ordinary taxation ; and every new 
purchaser contracted the obligations of the for- 
mer proprietor. An accurate census, or survey 
was repeated every fifteen years. The lands wer^ 
measured by surveyors, sent into tlie provinces, 
in order to report distinctly their nature, whether 
arable or pasture, vineyards or woods ; and an esti- 
mate was made of their common value from the 
average produce of five years. 

The numbers of slaves and of cattle constituted 
an essential part of this report j an oath was ad- 



260 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

ministered to the proprietors, which bound theni 
to disclose the true state of their affairs; and all 
attempts to prevaricate, or elude the intention of 
the legislator, were severely watched, and punish- 
ed as a capital crime, which included the double 
guilt of treason and of sacrilege. 

A large portion of the tribute was paid in mo* 
ney ; and of the current coin of the empire, gold 
alone could be legally accepted. The remain- 
der of the taxes, according to the proportions de- 
termined by the annual indiction, was furnished 
in a manner still more direct and oppressive. 
According to the different nature of lands, their 
real produce in the various articles of wine or oil, 
corn or barley, wood or iron, was transported by 
the labor, or at the expense of the provincials^ to 
the imperial magazines, from which they were 
occasionally distributed for the use of the court, 
of the army, and of the two capitals, Rome and 
Constantinople. 

The commissioners of the revenue were so fre- 
quently obliged to make considerable purchases, 
that they were strictly prohibited from allowing 
any compensation, or from receiving in money 
the value of those supplies which were exacted in 
kind. This method, in a corrupt and absolute 
monarchy, must necessarily introduce a perpetual 
contest between the power of oppression, and the 
arts of fraud. 

In consequence of this arbitrary and oppressive 



Bankruptcy of Britain, &c. 26i 

system of land taxes, the agriculture of the Roman, 
provinces was insensibly ruined^ and in the pro- 
gress of despotism, which invariably tends to dis- 
appoint its own purposes, by willing the end and 
always destroying the means, the emperors were 
obliged to derive some merit from the forgiveness 
of debts, or the remission of tributes, which their 
subjects were incapable of paying. 

According to the new division of Italy, the fer- 
tile province of Campania extended between the 
sea and the Appennine from the Tiber to the Sila- 
rus. Within sixty years after the death ofCon- 
stantine, and on the evidence of an actual survey, 
an exemption was granted in favor of three hundred 
and thirty thousand English acres of desert and 
uncultivated land ; which amounted to one-eighth 
of the whole surface of the province. And as the 
barbarians had not yet made their irruptions into 
Italy, the cause of this amazing desolation, which 
is recorded in the laws, can be ascribed only to 
the maladministration of the Roman emperors. 

To this tax or capitation on tl>e proprietors of 
land, the emperors imposed a distinct and person- 
al tribute on the trading part of their subjects, in 
order to share in that species of wealth which is 
derived from art or mechanical labor, and which 
exists in money or in merchandise. Every branch 
of commercial industry was affected by the seve- 
rity of this law. 

The honorable merchant of Alexandria, who 



^62 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

imported the gems and the spices of India for 
the use of the western world ; the money-broker 
who derived from the interest of his property a 
silent profit ; the ingenious manufacturer, the di- 
ligent mechanic, and even the most obscure re- 
tailer of a sequestered village, were compelled to 
admit the officers of the revenue into the partner- 
ship of their gain ; and the sovereign of the Ro- 
man empire, as does the worthy master of the 
present French territory, at once tolerated the 
profession and shared in the infamous profits of 
the public prostitutes. 

This general tax upon industry was collected 
every fourth year, under the name of the lustral 
contribution ; the fatal approach of which was uni- 
formly announced by the tears and terrors of the 
citizens, who were often compelled by the im- 
pending scourge to embrace the most abhorrent 
and unnatural methods of procuring the sum at 
which their property had been assessed. From 
the very nature of this tribute it could not but be 
arbitrary in its distribution, and extremely rigor- 
ous in the mode of its collection. 

The secret wealth of commerce, and the preca- 
rious profits of art or labor, are susceptible only 
of a discretionary valuation, which is seldom disad- 
vantageous to the interest of the public treasury; 
and as the person of the trader supplies the want 
of a visible and permanent security, the payment 
of the imposition, which in the case of a land-tax 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. '^GS 

may be obtained by the seizure of property, can 
rarely be extorted by any other means thaii 
those of corporal punishments. 

And accordingly, the cruel treatment of the in- 
solvent debtors of the state is attested, and per- 
haps was mitigated, by an edict of Constantine, 
who, disclaiming the use oi racks and scourges, al- 
lots a spacious prison for the place of their con- 
finement. 

These general taxes were imposed and levied, 
by the absolute authority of the monarch ; but in 
addition to these, the occasional offerings of coro- 
nary gold still retained the name and semblance 
of popular consent. It was an ancient custom 
that the allies of the republic, who ascribed their 
safety or deliverance to the success of the Roman 
arms, and that even the cities of Italy, who admi- 
red the valor of their victorious general, should 
adorn his triumph by their voluntary gifts of gold- 
en crowns, which, after the ceremony, were con- 
secrated in the temple of Jupiter. 

The progress of zeal and flattery soon multi- 
plied the number and increased the size of these 
popular donations, which, after a while, were 
made in the current gold coin of the Roman em- 
pire, and exacted as the debt of duty, being no 
longer confined to the rare occasion of a triumph; 
but expected to be granted by the several cities 
and provinces of the monarchy as often as the 
Emperor vouchsafed to announce his accession. 



264 HTNTS ON THE NATIONAL 

his consulship, the birth of a son, the creation of 
a Caesar, a victory over the barbarians; or any 
other real or imaginary event which graced the 
annals of his reign. 

The peculiar free-gift of the Senate of Rome, 
the auri oblatio, was fixed by custom at sixteen 
hundred pounds weight of gold, about sixty-four 
thousand pounds sterling, more than two hun- 
dred and eighty-four thousand dollars. The op- 
pressed subjects celebrated their own felicity, that 
their Emperor should graciously condescend to 
accept this feeble but voluntary testimony of their 
loyalty and gratitude !" 

Such is a very faint outline of the condition of 
Europe in that ybz/;VA century, to which Bonaparte 
declares he will again reduce the world. How far 
such a state of things is calculated to augment the 
industry, wealth, civilization, comfort, and happi- 
ness of the various nations of the earth, let every 
honest man judge. 



CHAPTER III. 



The next subject of inquiry is what effect the 
destruction of the British empire would have upon 
the national and individual interest of the Uni- 
ted States ? 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 9>Q5 

Say then that Britain is conquered, and incor- 
porated with the other dominions of Bonaparte ; 
who in consequence immediately prepares to sub- 
due the United States also. Do we doubt this 
immediate consequence ? Do we really imagine 
that the tyrant of Europe will permit the infant 
democracy of America to share the empire of the 
world with him, who has swallowed up and des- 
troyed all the ancient republics of Europe ? Is it 
in human nature to be satisfied with conquest 
while aught remains to be subdued ; does not am- 
bition, like love, grow by what it feeds on ; did a 
military conqueror ever yet volimtarili/ stop short 
in his career of power ; and do we expect that all 
human experience is to be falsified in our favor 
by the interposition of a miraculous and unheard 
of continence and self-denial in the gentle, sym- 
pathizing Bonaparte. 

Is such confidence, said Mr. Wyndham in his 
admirable speech in the House of Commons oa 
the deplorable peace of Amiens, — Is such confi- 
dence to be placed in the general nature of ambi- 
tion ? Is it in the nature of French ambition ? 
Is it in the nature of French revolutionary am- 
bition ? Is it in the nature of French revolu- 
tionary ambition as matured and concentrated in 
the bosom of Bonaparte ?" 

A plain man would imagine that all these idle 
dreams of the French not molesting the United 
States if Britain were but once annihilated, might 

3 M 



$,66 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

readily be dissipated by the very intelligible hints 
which the Corsican robber now, at this moment 
in 1809, is giving us of his real intentions towards 
this country, whenever he shall have an opportu- 
nity of ripening his plans into execution, I mean 
his perpetual piracies upon American commerce ; 
his burning the vessels, confiscating the property, 
imprisoning the seamen, insulting the ambassador, 
and dictating to the government of the United 
States of America. 

And all these compliments are paid to the free 
and independent Americans, while the British na- 
vy presents an insuperable obstacle to his passage 
across the Atlantic, and most eflectually renders^ 
abortive any attempts on his part to subjugate this 
country. But remove that obstacle, give to Bo- 
naparte that naval ascendancy, mount "thetyger 
of the land upon the shark of the ocean," and then 
smile at the improbability of our receiving a do- 
miciliary visit from the retinue of the great Napo- 
leon. 

Bonaparte will come then, or, which amounts 
to the same thing, will send one of his trusty gene- 
rals, to fraternize the United States. But the 
French will not come in the first instance to the 
New-England or middle states, where they might 
expect some hard fighting on their arrival. They 
will prefer sailing up the Chesapeake, and landing 
in Virginia ; from which as a central point they 
will be able to diverge in all directions, and take 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 267 

most effectual measures for the speedy subjuga- 
tion of the Federal Republic. 

In order merely to show that the French are 
very well acquainted with all the most favom'able 
points of attack upon the United States, I shall 
here insert the instructions contained in a Frenoh 
national newspaper, which at that time was the 
organ of the French Executive Directory j in like 
manner as the Moniteur is now the organ of Bo- 
naparte, and the National Intelligencer that of 
Mr. Jefferson; that is to say, all these papers are 
merely the echoes of the opinions and sentiments, 
which their respective masters see fit to have 
spread abroad among the vulgar. 

I desire it to be distinctly understood, that I do 
not quote the following piece, as showing the 
strict and intimate connection between the demo- 
cratic party in the United States, and the French 
government. 

A French national newspaper called " Le Bien 
Informe^^ published in Paris, and dated 26th Fruc- 
tidor, 6th year of the Republic (1798), a time 
when the Executive Directory were grievously 
displeased with the Federal administration of the 
United States for not immediately declaring war 
against Britain, and becoming the vassal of 
France, contains the following denunciations of 
vengeance. 

" He who speaks ill of John Adams (then Presi- 
dent of the United States), shall pay a fine of two 



gdS HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

thousand dollars, and be shut up for two years ; 
he who writes against the government, shall pay 
live thousand dollars, and suffer five years impri- 
sonment. Bache is arrested, and his paper (the 
Aurora, published at Philadelphia) is prohibited. 
So much for the liberty of the press. If George 
the Third was driven from England he would 
go to America, where he has invested money ; 
and what you would not expect, he would be a 
king there ; yes they would make him king there. 

" All Europe will have a representative govern- 
ment, but America, ungrateful and without en- 
ergy, will have a king ; not in form perhaps, but in 
fact. 

" If France had an army to land in the United 
States, she ought not to send it there. Cornwal- 
lis ami Burgoyiie were conquered by having ad- 
vanced into the interior. It is true that France 
has neither a fleet nor an army which she can dis- 
pose of in the new continent ; what ought she then 
to do with respect to the anhnosus infans of Amer- 
ica ? 

" Not to be so imprudent as to declare war 
against them ; for this would be also to declare it 
against all the republicans, (the democrats, then in 
opposition to, and now possessing the administra- 
tion of the government of the United States,) and 
planters^ and even against the savages, whom we 
respect. It must be made against the mercantile 
clan, devoted to George the Third. 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 269 

"And how shall it be made, you will say, this 
war of exception ? 

** A fleet of light vessels, not drawing at the 
most above ten feet water, some gun -boats and 
bomb-ketches, will go into the river Savannah in 
Georgia, as far as Tybee, and from Tybee to the 
town of Savannah. It will take possession of the 
magazine of stores, and burn the farm-houses on 
the right and left to the mouth of the river. 

" The same operation at Charleston in South- 
Carolina. It passes the bar, and by the same ope- 
ration burns Johnson's Island, and the buildings 
on Sullivan's Island. The same operation at 
George-Town, South-Carolina, and Wilmington, 
North-Carolina j go into Chesapeake bai/, and it is 
hy that, perhaps, by which the operation must be 
begun ; from Norfolk, Alexandria, the capital of 
Maryland, (Annapolis) and Baltimore. 

" Care must be taken, my friends, not to let 
one's self be enveloped in the Chesapeake, where 
one would be annihilated, if the English by sea, 
or the English- Americans by land, had time to 
advance. 

" The operation of the Chesapeake is an affair 
of eight days, and must begin at the most distant 
place, that is Baltimore, whence may be drawn a 
large contribution : Savannah, Charleston, and 
Norfolk, have near them little earthen forts, which 
can be taken without great danger from the rear. 
Have a care then to advance yourselves into the 



270 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

Deleware. One can burn on the left Lavingston- 
If one was sure, however, that the English were at 
a distance from it, one can at the same time biirn 
Philadelphia, It is an affair of eight days. 

*' Between Sandy-Hook and New- York there is 
a fort in a much more respectable state ; but they 
will bombard it. Long- Island, covered with 
houses, and also Nantucket, to be burned in an 
hour ; and Boston to be bombarded. 

" The master blow would be to finish at Halifax 
or Nova-Scotia, where the English winter in re- 
turning from the West-Indies; not believing you 
to be in force there, they keep none in the neigh- 
borhood. If the expedition were co-operated in 
hy a fleet from Canada, convoyed by a signal frig- 
ate, the operation would be brilliant. One might 
send the most part of your emigrants to Canada. 

" Enter New-Orleans with the consent of Spain^ 
take possession of the port of Natches, call on the 
friends of liberty in the back parts of the United 
States, from Kentucky to the southern limits of 
English America. It will be necessary to make 
some presents to the savages ; send back by way 
of Spain, General Melcourt, chief of the Creeks ; 
put in motion General Clark of Knoxville ; call to 
the French standard the legions of Florida and 
America raised by Genet and Mangourit ; pro- 
claim the liberty of the black slaves in the United 
States ; and give equality of rights to the people of 
color. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. - 27 i 

" It is in fine, the inhabitants of the confederate 
ports who Anglicise the United States. To destroy 
their elaboratories is to fix them for ten years in 
the interior of the country ; it is to put them in 
opposition with the planters who will accuse them 
for the disasters of the war ; it is to destroy the 
leopard who at this moment feigns a union with 
the eagle to devour her."* 

The French then would probably land in Vir- 
ginia, where they would be likely to be well re- 
ceived by their friends, the democratic planters ; 
and if not, it would be of no consequence ; they 
would proceed to emancipate, and to organize in- 
to an army the negroes of the southern states. 
Meanwhile a vast body of jacobin-rabble, already 
«stablished in the United States, but originally 
imported from France, and the French West-In- 
dies, from Ireland, from England, from Scotland, 
from Holland, from Germany, from Geneva, and 
from other places, the scum and refuse of the- 
world, the blast of anarchy and taint of crime, 
would all crowd to the gallic standard. 

With all the population of Europe at his com- 
mand ; with all the West-India islands under his 
control ; with Halifax as an excellent naval sta- 
tion J with Canada girding the union on the 
north ; and Louisiana and Florida, and the Spanish 
colonies hemming her in on the south ; how long 
would Bonaparte and his myrmidons be kept at 
bay by the few real Americans who might dare to 



27S HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

resist the mandates of the conqueror of the 
world ? 

It is too prevailing a fashion among the writers 
of newspapers, the authors of pamphlets, and the 
speakers of speeches, in the United States, inces- 
santly and gravely to inform the public, that the 
Americaji militia^ composed of a virtuous, enlight- 
ened, hardy, brave, and independent yeomanry, 
would speedily put to flight the French veteran 
troops, to whom all the regular armies in Europe, 
led on to battle by experienced generals, have 
yielded after the most obstinate and bloody fight- 
ing in large masses of fifty, of a hundred, and of 
two hundred thousand men, gathered together 
upon the field of carnage. 

I by no means intend to offer the least shade 
of disrespect to the individual valor of the men who 
compose the militia of tlie United States j for I do 
firmly believe that these men contain as good ma- 
terials for a fine army as any men in any other 
country in the world ; that is to say, their per- 
sonal courage, bodily strength and activity, dis- 
cernment and intelligence, are at least equal to 
those of any other people on earth. 

But these raw materials of an army make but a 
sorry show when opposed to experienced veteran 
soldiers, unless they be previously worked up 
into the requisite manufacture by constant disci- 
pline, and superior military tactics. Upon this 
very important question of the best means of na- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. S7S 

tiohal defence, I have only time to make a few ob- 
servations. He who wi-hes to see the whole sub- 
ject of the best means of forming and using an 
adequate military force, may consult the following 
works : namely, Caractere des Arnjees Europe'^n- 
nes dans la Guerre actuelle, avec une paralelle 
de la Politique, de la puissance, et des moyens 
desRomains etdes Fran9ais ; Londres ; T. Eger- 
ton, 1802. Doctor Adam Smith's Inquiry into 
the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. 
Book 5, chap. 1, 3d vol. p. 69 — 94, both inclu- 
sive ; 5, Burke, p. 374 — 402, both inclusive ; 8, 
Burke, 307 — 375. Edinburgh Review, 5th vol. 
p. 10—15; 8th vol. p. 294—311 ; 15th vol. p. 
427 — 462 ; and a letter to Mr. Wyndham from 
a gentleman in Edinburgh on the English volun- 
teer-system, published in Cobbett's Political Re- 
gister for February 1805. 

It is of no consequence whether we call men by 
the name of militia, or volunteers, or armed peasan- 
try, or by any other appellation, they are all alike 
ineffectual for the purposes of national defence, un- 
less they be kept in constant discipline, and follow 
the separate trade of a regular soldier, altogether Ais- 
tinct from, and unmingled with, the pursuit of any 
other calling. I shall endeavor by the help of the 
great lights to which I have just now referred, to 
show that all such soldiers, whom we will call mili- 
tia, for the sake of distinction and perspicuity, are j 
quite ineffectual to defend a country against for- 

2.N 



274 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

eign invasion ; because they are incapable of ac- 
quiring the requisite mihtary discipline; are enor- 
mously expensive ; are productive of grrat an.l 
general immorality. These positions will be sup» 
ported by an appeal to the most incontestible 
facts. 

A militia-army is for the most part composed 
of men taken from the midst of orderly and de- 
cent families; and \\hen encamped at a distance 
from home, their minds are perpetually lingering 
upon the scenes of their fondest recollections j 
upon the spot in which they first drew breath; 
the hill, the dale, and wood, where they sported in 
the hours of infancy and childhood, or followed 
the more robust pursuit of their game in the 
days of their youth; upon their parents, their 
brethren, their friends, and the objects of their 
softer affections. 

These men are not easily reduced to that strict 
discipline and subordination which are indispen- 
sably necessary to the preservation of an army, 
and to the rendering it effectual in opposing an 
enemy. And by the time that they begin to learn 
a little of the duties and functions of a soldier, they 
are disbanded and give way to new recruits, 
with whom the oflicers have to pace the same dis- 
mal round of ineffectual contention against all the 
difficulties and embarrassments of insubordina- 
tion and unmilitary habits, so essentially and vi- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. "273 

ta}\y connected with enlistments for a short pe- 
riod. 

It is however urged by many well-meaning 
people in the United States, as a conclusive argu- 
ment to prove the superiority of militia over regu- 
lar troops, in effectually repulsing an enemy, that 
militia men have to fight for their wives and chil- 
d-en ; and if any thing on earth will make a man 
brave, say they, it is seeing his wife in danger of 
being dishonored, and his children of being mas- 
sacred by a relentless foreign foe. 

Now admitting the full force of this argument; 
admitting that a man will fight more vigorously 
in the sight and in the defence of his wife and chil- 
dren, than for any other object ; — what then ? sol- 
diers cannot always, nay, they can very seldom 
have it in their power to fight immediately before 
their own doors, and within the full sound 
and hearing of the shrieks and screams of their 
affrighted wives and children. And when absent 
from these endearing and endeared objects the 
minds of our militia-men would be incessantly 
recurring to the scenes of their domestic happi- 
ness -y and the perpetual yearning of the soul to 
revisit their wives, and children, and property, 
would unstring their nerves, sicken their hearts, 
and palsy their arms, at a distance from home; 
and like the Swiss, when the well-known air of 
the Ranz des Vaches afflicts them with the maladie 
du pays m foreign service, they would desert in 



276 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

crowds, and in whole regiments ; leaving the 
general and his officers to face the enemy alone ; 
as the Spanish militia did lately, when they deser- 
ted Don Joachim Blake at Belchite. 

Fear of death, and a desire to avoid bodily dan- 
ger and pain, are essentially interwoven into the 
very nature of tlie human heart. But it is pre- 
cisely the business of a soldier to despise pain and 
danger, and always to carry his life in his hand, 
ready to !)e given up at a moment's call, in obedi- 
ence to the directions of the commanding officer. 

Now the great counteracting forces of the fear 
of danger and of death in military men, are found 
by nniversal experience to consist in a dread of 
shame, and a desire of glory. The dread of shame 
is generated in the army by the unavoidable pun- 
ishment and infamy at all times inseparable from 
cowardice, which is justly deemed the greatest of 
all possible crimes in a soldier, whose business it 
is to die at the word of command. 

The desire of glory which leads to acts of hero- 
ism and of voluntary valor, is created and fostered 
by a frequent intercourse with danger ; by con- 
tinual association with comrades of disciplined 
courage j by the universal applause and homage 
which mankind lavish upon military prov/ess ; and 
by the love of power, which constitutes one of the 
most essential parts of human nature. 

The basis of all military perfection is prompt 
and unqualified obedience to the commands of the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, kc. 277 

superior officers ; without which neither the intel- 
lect of the general, nor the courage of the soldier, 
can ever have its full field of exertion. To secure 
a real army the officer must be first and last in the 
eye of the soldier ; first and last in his attention, 
observance, and esteem. 

That physical courage, the most essential pro- 
perty of the soldier, very much depends upon habit 
and discipline, appears from this well known fact ; 
that a veteran soldier, who has served many can - 
paigns on land, has often marched up to the 
breach made by the terrible battery of the can- 
non, and displayed frequent evidences of the most 
indubitable and determined courage, has yet 
been often seen to tremble with terror on board a 
ship at a cap-full of wind. For under such cir- 
cumstances, his accustomed associations, spring- 
ing from long habits of prompt obedience to, and 
reliance upon the orders of his commanding offi- 
cer, are broken ; and the essential qualities of his 
nature, fear of death and of bodily danger, are al- 
lowed to resume their full power, by the withdraw- 
ing of the artificial and counteracting forces which 
resulted from military discipline. 

And the love of glory itself, which burns in the 
bosom of many soldiers, both officers and privates, 
and which prompts men to perform such astonish- 
ing deeds of hardihood and valor, is kept alive by 
the habitual courage that is for the most part 
created by military discipline. It is also cherished 



278 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

by the esprit dii corps ^ the spirit of the military 
body, not only as distinguished from the otlier 
classes of society, but also as marking out peculiar 
bodies of military men who signalize themselves 
above their fellows ; a spirit which has often con- 
verted a herd of cowards into a band of heroes: 
by the peculiar splendor of the soldier's garb, the 
accompaniment of martial music, the enthusiasm 
of an imagination heated by the frequent recital 
of heroic exploits, and by all the pomp, pride and 
circumstances, attendant upon the prepaiations 
for war ; all so peculiarly calculated to throw a 
dazzling lustre upon the career of the warrior. 

It miglit be observed in passing, that the splen- 
did garb of the soldier produces an aggi^egale ef- 
fect upon himself and his opponents. The militia 
in their diversified clothing produce no general 
and united impression ; all is broken down into 
detail, and minute, individual, feeble fragments. 
The mind does not receive that aid which a regu- 
lar uniform furnishes to concentrate the valor of 
the individual into one great, general and terrible 
impression. 

But this prompt and unconditional obedience 
to military discipline can never be infused into a 
body of militia-men, who are gathered together 
only for a short time, and know that they shall soon 
be freed from the power and control of their com- 
manding officers. This is in effect, holding up a 
high bounty to debauch the soldiers from their of- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 579 

firers. It is touching the central pdint about 
wliich the component particles of armies are at 
repr»se. It is destroying the principle of obe- 
dience in the essential, critical link between the 
officer and the soldier, just where the chain of 
military subordination commences, and on which 
the whole militaiy system depends. 

The militia soldier in the United States is in- 
dustriously ii.iormed that he is a citizen, and pos- 
sesses the r^ ? hts of a man and a citizen, as the pri- 
vilege of •; 3 free birth. The right of a free and 
iiidepe ent man, he is told, is to be his own go- 
verno \ and to be ruled only by those to whom 
he n ..legates that self-government. And it is very 
natural for him to think that he ought most of all 
to have his choice where he is expected to yield 
the greatest degree of obedience. Accordingly, 
the militia officers in many parts of the union are 
obliged to be perpetually on their good behavior, 
and be especially cautious not to deviate into any 
authority or discipline; lest they should offend 
t!)e majesty of that portion of the sovereign peo- 
ple which condescends to enrol itself in the pa- 
per Lists of the military defenders of their coun- 

An army of militia consequently never can be 
rendered effective in the field or in the camp ; be- 
cause the men are never trained to those habits 
of patient toil, of cool indifference to all danger, 
and of that steady, unshaken valor, so conspicuous 



280 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

in a well-disciplined soldier, and so all-important to 
the success of a campaign, whether it be employ- 
ed in offensive or defensive warfare. And what- 
ever may be the courage of individuals, it is well 
known that undisciplined valor is fatal to the pos- 
sessor, and useless to the community, in direct 
proportion to its activity and force, which only 
expose it to more certain and speedy destruction 
when set in array against the steady and well-di- 
rected machinery of military tactics. 

If we try these general principles by a variety of 
illustration, and of particular facts, we shall find 
that they are uniformly correct and just. 

" In the progress of human society war becomes 
one of the most complicated sciences. The state 
of the mechanical, and of some other arts, with 
which it is necessarily connected, determines in- 
deed the degree of perfection to which it is capable 
of being carried at any given period. But in or- 
der to carry it even to this degree of perfection, it 
is necessary that it should become the sole or prin- 
cipal occupation of a particular class of men ; and 
the division of labor is as necessary for the im- 
provement of this, as of every other art. 

Into other arts the division of labor is naturally 
introduced by the prudence of individuals, who 
find that they promote their private interests bet- 
ter by confining themselves to a particular trade, 
than by exercising a great number of different vo- 
cations. But it is the wisdom of the goveriiment 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 281 

only which can render the calling of a soldier a 
particular trade, separate and distinct from all 
others. 

A private citizen, who, in time of profound 
peace, and without any particular encouragement 
from the public, should spend the greater portion 
of his time in military exercises, might doubtless 
render himself an expert parade-soldier, and high- 
ly entertain himself j but he certainly would not 
promote his own interest. It is the wisdom of the 
government only which can make it his interest to 
give up the greatest part of his time to this pecu- 
liar occupation ; and governments have not always 
had this wisdom, even when their circumstances 
had become such as to rest their only hope of na- 
tional safety upon a regular military institution. 

A husbandman, in the ruder condition of agri- 
culture, has some leisure ; but an artificer or man- 
ufacturer, in a civilized state of society, has none. 
The farmer, therefore, can afford to employ a small 
portion of his time in military exercises ; but the 
manufacturer or artificer cannot consume a single 
hour in them, without incurring loss ; whence his 
attention to his own interest naturally leads him 
to neglect them altogether. 

Besides, those improvements in agriculture 
which the progress of arts and manufactures natur- 
ally introduces, leaves the farmer as little leisure 
as the mechanic. Military exercises are then as 
much neglected by the inhabitants of the country 

Q o 



S8!2 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

as by those of the towns, and the great body of the 
people becomes altogether unwarlike. And that 
wealth which always follows the improvements of 
agriculture, manufactures and commerce; and 
which in reality is nothing more than the accunju- 
lated produce of those improvements, provokes 
the invasion of all their neighbors. 

An industrious, and upon that account, a weal- 
thy nation, is of all nations the most likely to be 
attacked ; and unless the government take some 
measures for the public defence, the natural habits 
of the people render them altogether incapable of 
defending themselves." 

It is true that militia exercises are not altogeth- 
er neglected by the American agriculturists; but 
these, in addition to America being yet in her na- 
tional infancy, will presently be seen to be quite 
inadequate for delending a country against foreign 
invasion. 

"In such circumstances there are but two modes 
of making provision for public defence ; either, 
1st. by means of a very rigorous police, which, in 
spite of the whole bent of the interest, genius, and 
inclinations of the people, enforces the practice of 
military exercise, and obliges either all, or nearly 
all the citizens of the military age to join in some 
measure the trade of a soldier to whatever other 
trade or profession they may happen to follow. 
This mode is adopted in the United States. 

Or, SIdly, by maintaining and employing a cer- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. S8S 

tain number of citizens in the constant practice of 
military exercises, to render the trade of a soldier 
a particular calling, distinct and separate from all 
other employments. 

Men raised and used according to the first meth- 
od, are called militia: men embodied under the 
second mode, are denominated regular troops. 
The practice of military exercises is the sole or 
principal occupation of regular soldiers; and the 
maintenance or pay which they receive from gov- 
ernment is the principal and ordinary fund of their 
subsistence. The practice of military exercises is 
only the occasional occupation of militia-men, and 
they derive their chief means of support from some 
other employment than that of arms. 

In a militia, the character of the laborer, artifi- 
cer, or tradesman, predominates over that of the 
soldier ; but in a regular army the character of 
the soldier predominates over that of every other 
calling. 

Regularity, order, and prompt obedience to 
command, are qualities which in modern armies 
are of more importance towards determining the 
fate of battles, than the skill and dexterity of the 
individual soldiers in the use of their arms. But 
the noise of fire-arms, the smoke, and the invisi- 
ble death to which every man feels himself every 
moment exposed, as soon as he comes within can- 
non-shot, and frequently a long time before the 
battle can be said to be commenced, must render 



284 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

it very difficult to maintain any considerable de- 
gree of regularity, order, and prompt obedience, 
even in the beginning of a battle. These habits 
can only be acquired by troops which are con- 
tinually exercised in large bodies. 

A militia, however, in whatever manner it may 
be either disciplined or exercised, must always be 
much inferior to a well-disciplined and well-exer- 
cised standing army. 

The soldiers who are exercised only once a 
week, or once a month, or still less frequently, 
can never be so expert in the use of their arms, as 
those who are exercised every day, or every other 
day. Nor can the soldiers who are expected to 
obey their officer only once a week, or once a 
month ; and who at all other times have full liber- 
ty " to manage their own affairs in their own. 
way," without being in any respect accountable 
to him, be under the same awe in his presence, 
and have the same disposition to ready obedience, 
as those soldiers whose whole life and conduct 
are every day directed by him ; and who every 
day even rise and go to bed, or at least retire to 
their quarters, according to his orders. 

In discipline, or the habit of ready obedience, 
a militia must be always still more inferior to a 
regular army, than it may sometimes perhaps be 
in the manual e\ercise, or the management and 
use of arms. But in modern warfare, the habit of 
ready and instant obedience is of much greater 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 285^ 

consequence than a considerable superiority in 
manual exercise. 

A militia of any kind, however, which has ser- 
ved for several successive campaigns in the field, 
becomes in every respect a regular army. The 
soldiers are every day exercised in the use of 
their arms, and being constantly under the com- 
mand of their officers, are habituated to the same 
prompt obedience which takes place in regular 
armies. What they were before they took the 
field is of little importance. They necessarily be* 
come in every respect a regular army after they 
have passed a few campaigns in actual service. 

This distinction being well understood, the his- 
tory of all ages will be found to bear the most un- 
equivocal testimony to the irresistible superiority 
of a well-disciplined regular army over a mi- 
litia. 

The soldiers of a regular army, though they 
may never have seen an enemy, yet have fre- 
quently appeared to possess all the courage of 
veteran troops ; and in the very moment that they 
took the field, to have been fit to face the hardi- 
est and most experienced veterans. In the year 
1756, when the Russian army marched into Po- 
land, the valor of the Russian soldiers did not ap- 
pear inferior to that of the Prussians, then 
reputed to be the hardiest and most experienced 
veterans in Europe. But the Russian empire had 
enjoyed a profound peace for nearly twenty years 



280 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

before that time ; and consequently could then 
have very few soldiers who had ever seen an en- 
emy. 

And when the Spanish war broke out in 1739, 
England had reposed in profound peace for eight- 
and-twenty years. Yet the valor of her soldiers, 
so far from being corrupted by that long peace, 
was never more distinguished than in the attempt 
upon Carthagena, the first exploit of that war. 
In a long peace, perhaps the generals may some- 
times forget their skill ; but where a well-regula- 
ted standing army is kept up the soldiers never 
forget their valor. 

When a civilized nation depends for its defence 
upon a militia, it is at all times exposed to be 
conquered by an invading regular army. A reg- 
ular army can best be maintained by an opulent 
and civilized nation, which can only be defended 
by such an army from inevitable subjugation in 
the event of foreign invasion. It is only therefore 
by means of a regular army that the civilization 
of any country can be perpetuated, or even pre- 
served for any considerable time." 

Another military theory which pervades the 
union is, that a numerous peasantry is the only 
sure and safe defence of a great country. Nay, 
a senator of the United States, and by far the 
ablest of all the leaders of his party, openly de- 
clared in Congress, during the winter of 1808 — 9a 
" that Britain could never have an efficient army. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 287 

because she had so small a proportion of her popu- 
lation employed in agriculture ; and so grekt a 
mass of her people occupied in manufacturing 
and mechanical operations, which entirely unfit- 
ted men for the hardy and robust calling of a sol- 
dier J by enervating their bodies, weakening their 
minds, extinguishing the generous love of liber- 
ty," &c. &c. 

We are continually informed by men of great 
respectability, both as to talent and information, 
that " the proprietors of the soil, the independent 
yeomanry, of all classes of the community, have 
the most real and immediate interest in the per- 
manent prosperity of the country. They and 
their brethren, the peasantry, are of all men the 
most attached to liberty and independence ; they 
are the natural supporters of the union ; they are 
its effective guardians, and justly stand at the head 
of all the other orders of society. From among 
them alone can a safe and efficient military force be 
raised. 

" The militia is made up of a high spirited, 
generous race, who have wives and children to 
love and guard, landed property to preserve, and 
defend. They alone are the natural defence of a 
nation, the only source of a military power. They 
are not such military machines as were broken by 
tiie French at Austerlitz, at Jena, at Pultusk, at 
Elsinghen, at Wagram ; — no, before their manly 
prowess all the legions of Europe would bite the 



288 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL . 

dust ;" and much more in the same soothing 
strain. 

"This doctrine, to be sure, has found multitudes 
of converts among the retailers of sentiment, as 
well as among speculative politicians. The pea- 
santry are always represented in this country to 
be so very "virtuous, hardy, spirited, free-born," 
&c. that we are invited to believe that there is 
neither worth, strength, valor, nor freedom in any 
other classes of the community. But the slightest 
acquaintance with history will inform us, that the 
most eminent instances of slavery are to be found 
in myriads of bondmen, the only name for peasants 
in most of the countries of Europe ; and that the 
progress of freedom has uniformly been co-eval 
with the multiplication of the other orders of soci- 
ety, more particularly of the mercantile and man- 
ufacturing classes. 

To render the cultivators of the soil still more 
interesting, they are termed " simple, natural, hap- 
py, ignorant," and the like. Most of the theories 
and declamations in favor of barbarism which is 
softened down into *' the rude state of society," 
are advanced to prove the utility of the militia-sys- 
tem, and the superiority of the tillers of the soil 
to the inhabitants of the town. 

And to crown all, every opprobrious epithet 
is lavished upon the artisan, as a dweller in cities, 
a consumer of spirituous liquors, and other dain- 
ties, a well-educated, and a civilized being. He 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C, 289 

is represented as sickly, weak, ugly, puny, dissi- 
pated, sedentary, and seditious. 

But notwithstanding all this eloquence, senti- 
ment, and authority, the. /<7c/i' lie altogether in the 
opposite scale. If the bodily strength ot" artisans 
be less than that of ploughmen, they possess in a 
much greater degree that manual (iexterity and 
skill so necessary in the evolutions of modern war. 
Their health, impaired perhaps by sedentary la- 
bor, is speedily restored by the exertions of disci- 
pline, and the practice of the field. 

Modern warfare consists in reducing men to a 
state of great mechanical activity, and combniing 
them as parts of a great machine. For this use 
which of the two is most fitted by his previous 
habits; he who has been all his life acting the 
part of a mechanical implement in a combination 
of movements; or he who has been constantly 
employed as a thinking independent, separate, 
and insulated agent ? 

Obedience is the first requisite in a soldier, 
who for his pay must give up every faculty of 
body and mind to the will of another. Is such 
discipline enforced more easily on those who have 
roamed the woods, and spent their days in a vaun- 
ted freedom and self-control ; or in those who 
have never known the use of their natural inde- 
pendence ; but have lived, worked, and almost 
breathed at the will of their employers ^ 

2 P 



HINTS OK THE NATIONAL 

It should also be remembered that of all troops 
the most expensive are those levied from agricul- 
tural occupations ; that artisans are naturally 
thrown idle by every w^ar, but the peasantry must 
work constantly, or the community will starve ; 
that the husbandmen can only be drawn into mili- 
tary service during certain seasons of the year ; 
and that hired troops naturally composed of manu- 
facturers can be retained in service all the year 
round." The consideration of expense however 
wiW be taken up hereafter. 

" It appears from the most careful survey of his- 
torical evidence, that a ivell-discipUned army has in 
all ages been a sure foundation of political power 
and importance ; and that such armies have been 
the immediate and eflicient instruments in produ- 
cing all those great revolutions in the affairs of 
men, which are recorded in authentic history. It 
is therefore of importance to inquire what are the 
peculiar qualities which characterize soldiers ; and 
in what manner those qualities arise out of the 
peculiar constitution which armies have in all ages 
invariably assumed. 

Thisinquir}^ is the more necessary, because the 
fundamental principles of an army are grounded on 
the unchangeable qualities of the human mind ; 
and have on that account remained stationary 
amidst the varying fashions, manners and improve- 
ments of mankind. The constitution of an army 
has grown out of the nature of society, and has 
beea found by the universal experience of man- 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. ^91 

kind to be well calculated to fit those who are 
trained under its regulations for the purposes of 
war. 

The perfection of a military force consists in an 
instant and complete obedience to command ; not 
merely on a parade, where an}'^ man may easily 
obey orders, but in braving every mode of peril 
and of death in prompt submission to the direc- 
tions of the superior officer. It is therefore the 
object of discipline, not only to establish authority 
on a solid foundation, by training men to a con- 
stant familiarity with the peremptory decrees of 
martial lawj but also to facilitate and secure obe- 
dience, by forming and maturing those habits of 
mind which enable them bravely and cheerfully 
to confront danger. 

There arises also in all armies when engaged in 
the operations of war, and exposed to its perils, a 
peculiar system of manners which greatly aids the 
effect of positive institutions. From the ardor of 
zeal, emulation and honor, naturally produced by 
the situation of the soldiers, men are animated to 
unusual exertions of valor; and they rejoice and 
glory in scenes which the mind in its natural state 
contemplates with horror. 

It is only also in the perilous emergencies of 
real service, that a commander has an opportu- 
nity of securing the confidence, and conciliating 
the affections of his troops ; by displaying cour- 
age, capacity, and presence of mind in the midst 



292 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

of dansjer ; by an unwearied attention to the com- 
forts of the soldiers ; by showing on all occasions 
a zealous attachment to the military character 
ajid p'ofession ; and by cheerfully participating 
in all the dangers and privations to which they 
are exposed. 

By these means all great generals have contri- 
ved to communicate to their troops an extraordi- 
nary portion of heroic zeal. By operating on 
their minds with peculiar incentives, they have 
given new energy to all those principles on which 
the excellence of the military character depends, 
and have called forth in their service all those en- 
thusiastic feelings which, in the hour of danger, 
animate the passions, and fortify the heart. 

Men who have been accustomed to this sort of 
trainin*:; very soon acquire all those moral habi- 
tudes, which teach them fearlessly to encounter 
danger, and it is altOij:elher in these qualities of the 
mind, that ue are to look for that grand distinction 
which exists Itctween soldiers and njen employed 
in peaceful occupations ; and for that superiority 
in the field, uhith has always enabled armies to 
discomfit and disperse every species of irregular 
force that has been rashly exposed to their attack. 

It is therefore highly dangerous and impolitic 
in any couritry to rely for its security on the ef- 
forts of men who are not soldiers, who employ 
themselves only occasionally in acquiring mechan- 
ical dexterity in the use of arms, and devote the 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 293 

chief portion of their time and attention to wholly 
different pursuits. It is impossible that men so 
circumstanced can ever acquire the characteris- 
tic habits and feelings of soldiers ; and it has been 
found by universal experience that they have 
never been able to withstand the shock of a regu- 
lar army. 

Whenever, therefore, the military force of any 
state is formed, either wholly or in party of the un- 
warlike population of the country, who may, no 
doubt, be very easily assimilated to soldiers in ex- 
ternal appearance, but who never can acquire 
their real character, very great inconvenience and 
danger must be the inevitable result. For in case 
of invasion militia-men, or any other species of 
undisciplined troops, can only resort to a system 
of defensive warfare, which in an open and level 
country can never be ultimately successful, except 
through the misconduct of the enemy ; and which 
even in a country abounding in strong positions, 
must be of very doubtful issue. 

With a force imperfectly disciplined to check 
veteran troops by a judicious combination of sci- 
entific movements ; to choose positions so excel- 
lent as to bid defiance to the efforts of the most 
enterprising enemy ; and so to fortify and secure 
them, that superior gallantry should be only a 
passport to destruction ; requires such skill and 
talents, and such a series of prosperous events. 



294 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

that it would be quite unsafe for any country to 
hazard its security on so rare a conjunction. 

The invading army might, by rapid and daring 
hostility, render nugatory a sj'^stem of defensive 
tactics ; might force its enemy to a battle in de- 
fence of some capital object ; and the issue of 
such a contest would not be long doubtful, if suc- 
cess depended on the persevering valor of inex- 
perienced troops. It appears to be self-evident, 
that an invader who possesses an army excellent- 
ly trained and disciplined, and who is opposed 
by a force of inferior character, must ultimately 
succeed in his views, if he be sufficiently rapid 
and enterprising in his movements, so as to pre- 
vent both the spirit of adventure from languishing 
among his followers, and the invaded country from 
concentrating its physical strength. 

The events of war are determined by the united 
influence of discipline and tactics, and consequent- 
ly the perfection of the military art is produced 
by a combination of skilful tactics with a high 
state of discipline. A general may have brought 
his troops to the highest possible degree of disci- 
pline, but may not have matured a system of tac- 
tics to a corresponding degree of perfection ; or 
an unskilful general may be intrusted with the 
command of excellent troops, and may be oppo- 
sed by a more skilful commander with an army 
inferior in discipline ; and the superiority of tac- 
tics on the one side may more than counterba- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 295 

lance an inferiority of discipline. But can we 
thence infer that troops imperfectly disciplined 
are a match for veteran forces, or that discipline 
has not a most important influence on the decision 
of battles? It would be equally correct to say, 
that in military operations, superior numbers are 
not a very material advantage, because they have 
been frequently more than counterbalanced by 
the talents of a skilful general. 

The object of a great commander who is well 
acquainted with his troops, and who has gained 
their confidence, is generally to bring his enemy 
to battle on fair and equal terms, and if that can- 
not be done, to attack even at a disadvantage. 
His decision must be guided entirely by the ex- 
isting circumstances, and in forming a correct es- 
timate of the comparative advantage of the ene- 
my's position, and of the superior discipline of his 
own troops, the event of the battle, and his own 
character for prudence and judgment, must whol- 
ly depend. 

Marlborough seems to have united in his cha- 
racter all the qualities of a great general ; to have 
combined skilful tactics with the most admirable 
discipline ; not only to have excelled in perfect- 
ing his instrument, but to have been equally dex- 
terous in using it with the best possible effect. 
His troops appear to have possessed in the great- 
est perfections all those qualities, which in the hour 
of peril, render the heart impregnable to panic or 



296 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

dismay, and they were led on to contend for victory 
and for fame, by commanders of tried courage and 
capacity, who exalted by their own example the 
ardor of their troops to the highest possible eleva- 
tion of heroic zeal. 

It was particularly remarked in the battle of 
Ramillies, how conspicuously every officer of rank 
distinguished himself; and even the Dutch gene- 
ral, Monsieur Auverquerque, forgetting his years 
and infirmities, was seen every where in the hot- 
test of the fire, encouraging and animating his 
men to prodigies of valor. 

Malborough did not waste the energies of such 
troops in feeble and indecisive hostility ; his mode 
of warfare was entirely adapted to the nature and 
character of the force which he commanded, and 
was admirably calculated to display the effects of 
superior discipline ; he hazarded every thing and 
depended in the day of battle on the tried fidelity 
and courage of his soldiers ; and on the sure re- 
sources of his own genius for a glorious result. 

He was fettered at the outset of his career by the 
timid caution of the Dutch generals ; but with such 
forces, and such a commander, it was prudence to 
attempt the boldest and most adventurous designs. 
The superiority of Marlborough's troops in steady 
and desperate valor was recognised by his ene- 
mies, who felt themselves unable to withstand 
them in the field, and frequently deserted their 
strongest positions at his approach. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. ^97 

Indeed, the whole history of his campaigns il- 
lustrates strikingly, so far at least as respects the 
relative discipline of the troops engao-ed, the theo- 
ry of offensive and defensive war ; and shows plain- 
ly how difficult it is to defend the strongest posi- 
tions as:ainst an army very highly disciplined, and 
led on by a bold and enterprising commander. 

As it appears, therefore, that the success of 
military operations so materially depends upon 
the discipline of the troops employed, nothing can 
be more impolitic in any country than to rely for 
its defence on any force of inferior quality, and 
thus voluntarily to relinquish one of the requisite 
conditions either for acting offensively, or for en- 
suring the speedy discomfiture of an invading ar- 
my. The independence of such a country, when 
attacked by a regular army, must rest on a very 
insecure foundation. Its defence perhaps may be 
rendered possible, by a strong barrier of fortified 
towns ; by the nature of a country abounding in 
strong positions; and by the unskilful manage- 
ment of the invading army. 

If a commander with a force trained and disci- 
plined, after beating his enemy in the field, does 
not push his advantages with rapidity and vigor ; 
if he allows them to recover from the consternation 
of his first victories ; to recruit and re-animate tiieir 
broken and disheartened troops ; to secure their 
strong holds ; and to consolidate the physical 

2q 



298 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

strength of the country against him, his ultimate 
ruin is certain. 

He should never allow his men to rest in pursuit- 
of a routed foe ; nor should he stand wavering and 
deliberating before passes and strong positions; 
but appal liis enemy by the rapidity of his move- 
ments and the boldness of his designs ; always 
considering that the most sanguinary and desperate 
hostility is his surest policy; and that the blindest 
temerity does not lead more surely to destructioa 
in the end, than a system of protracted and indeci- 
sive warfare. 

Since then a regular army skilfully commanded 
has always effected the ruin of a country defended 
by a less effective species of military force, a na- 
tion ought to rest its security solely on a regular 
armyy 

But in addition to being incapable of arriving at 
any perfection of discipline, the militia ismoree.r- 
pensive than the regular system. In the United 
Slates they profess to have a million of militia- 
men, who used to be exercised three times in a 
year, in order to render them expert and service- 
able soldiers ; but within these six months, orders 
have been issued, and laws passed, that they shall 
be called out on the parade no less than eight times 
a year, for the purpose of enabling them to beat 
the French veteran troops, whenever they may see 
fit to pay us a visit. 

Say, these million of men would earn on an ave- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 299 

raQ:e a dollar each per day; that the work which 
they mi^ht perform is worth twice as much as their 
wages, according to the average value of profit on 
trndmij; and fanning stock ; and that they spend in 
iiileness and drunkenness as much as their wages 
are worth, and we have the following rate of annual 
expenditure for keeping up an inetfectual military 
force :. 

£isj:ht days' wages for a million of men S 8,000,000 
The value of eight days' work of these 

men, 16,000,000 

The money spent by them in idle- 
ness on those days, 8,000,000 



Total annual cost, 32,000,000 

For which sum, or half the sum, if we take the wa- 
ges of labor at half a dollar a day, a very respecta- 
ble regular army might be maintained, and the 
rest of the population be permitted to follow their 
respective employments. 

Indeed, the introduction of regular armies is one 
of the greatest improvements in the science of 
politics ; for by them a nation is more effectually 
protected, and at a much smaller expenditure of 
the public money, than can be effected by any or- 
ganization of militia; because the loss of time 
and labor occasioned by withdrawing the citizen , 
from his peaceful occupation to become a tempo- 
rary and an awkward soldier, actually wastes more 
of the nation's caj^ital, by stopping the progress 



300 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

of productive industry, than would be consumed 
by maintaining regular bodies of troops, whose on- 
ly business it is to acquire and preserve habits of 
military obedience, and to fight when necessary. 

In the progress of society, and of the division 
of labor, it is necessary that the calling of a sol- 
dier should become a distinct and separate trade 
of itself, in order that the other classes of the com- 
munity might be left at liherty to pursue their 
respective employments; by the operation of 
which the whole society is rendered wealthy and 
prosperous. So that the weaver should not be 
drawn from his loom, nor the farmer from his 
plough ; but that the land may continue to be 
tilled, and the necessary arts of life be still prose- 
cuted amidst tlie clashings of national conflicts ; 
and war itsvlf b« reduced to a game of military 
skill, and of financial calculation, instead of be- 
conjing a calamity big with the inevitable ruin 
and desolation of the contending countries. 

" The expense of raising and maintaining an ag- 
ricultural mditia is most enormous to the prosperi- 
ty and wealth of the community. In every thriving 
and prosperous country, there is a certain mass of 
the inhabitants, whose circumstances are uncom- 
fortable : whose fortunes are precarious; who are 
attached to no regular profession, but ready to shift 
about in order to answer any temporary demand 
for labor that might occur ; or to supply any blank 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 301 

in the other bodies, which may leave a vacancy in 
the ordinary channels of industry. 

This class of the community is in every respect 
least valuable. Its members are persons of bad 
character, and idle habits ; men who generally 
owe their misfortunes to their follies or their vices ; 
or who are driven by more inevitable calamities 
into idle and criminal habits. They are a con- 
geries of out-casts from the sound branches of the 
population, and have a tendency to corrupt the 
rest of its members ; they are the scum and off- 
scourins^s of society ; or those parts, which are, 
from being thrown off, in a progress towards this 
impure and noxious state. 

Their numbers are continually varying with all 
the changes in the fortunes of the community ; with 
the wisdom of its internal administration ; the en- 
couragements which itspolice affords to industry or 
to idleness ; the changes in its domestic prosperi- 
ty, and in its external security and power. They 
abound in commercial and manufacturing com- 
munities, and more particularly in those districts 
which supply the more capricious desires of man- 
kind, and are most liable to sudden variation of 
demand. 

In almost all the large cities of the United 
States however, notwithstanding the abundance of 
land, and monopoly-price of labor, in this coun- 
try, we have by far too large a floating mass of 
this noxious shifting population ; consisting indeed 



302 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

chiefly of imported Europeans ; but their number 
is annually increasing to a formidable amount 
by the facility with which their breed is promoted 
and encouraged. 

The natural destination of this class of men is 
the naval and military service of the state. Disci- 
pline will excite industry, or at least exertion, in 
those whom habits of idleness have rendered cal- 
lous to all the temptations of hire. Strict govern- 
ment will reform the manners, or at least restrain 
the conduct of those whom a life of lawless dissi- 
pation had corrupted. It is highly beneficial to 
the sounder parts of the community that such rot- 
ten members should be separated from contact 
with the rest ; even if they cannot be cured by a 
strongly alterative regimen. 

Above all, it is highly beneficial to the state, 
that its pressing demands for soldiers and sailors 
should be supplied easily and suddenly, without 
disturbing in the slightest degree the arrange- 
ments of the community. War thus creates the 
very means of supplying its demand, without con- 
clusion or derangement of the society. It fur- 
nishes men to the army and navy without disturb- 
ing the loom and the plough, or drying up the 
sources of national wealth ; from which its ex- 
penses are to be provided. It carries off the bad 
humors formerly secreted in the body-politic, 
without any danger from their contagious influ- 
ence to the sounder parts of the system. 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 303 

But the militia being raised compulsorily from 
all the orders of the community alike, is formed 
of the soundest, as well as of the floating popula- 
tion ; and consists of the industrious laborer as 
well as of the idle and profligate vagrant. An 
army so raised, takes away both that part of the 
people which should remain at their looms and 
ploughs, and that part which ought to be enlisted 
or impressed. It confounds in one indiscriminate 
levy, the persons least fitted for military pursuits, 
and those who are formed for the army by all 
their previous habits. It falls alike on those who 
are benefited and on those who are ruined by the 
change of life ; and drains those parts of the coun- 
try where no fit subjects are to be found, as well 
as those which abound in materials for the recruit- 
ing service. 

The regular army, recruited by voluntary en- 
listment, draws off precisely those who ought to 
enter, and leaves all those free who can be better 
employed as citizens than as soldiers. It is sup- 
plied by the districts where a floating population 
abounds, and does not grow at the expense of 
those which are full of industry and morals. It 
is supplied by the very circumstances which ren- 
der its existence necessary ; and instead of 
greatly aggravating, it eminently alleviates the 
evds of a state of warfare. 

The benefits of this system in military policy 
are exactly analagous to tl)ose of the funding sys- 



304 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

tem in finance. The practice of raising money 
by loan, enables capital to find an investment, 
when it is shut out from all the ordinary channels 
of employment, and gives the government the ben- 
efit of sudden assistance, without cramping the 
commerce which the war may still allow to exist. 
It forces nothing, it avails itself of circumstances ; 
it turns an evil into a benefit; and prevents the 
shocks of war from falling on the most delicate 
parts of the political machine. 

But admitting the expense, that is the loss atten- 
dant upon the two systems of raising troops, were 
precisely equal, yet they fall with very different 
degrees of justice upon the community. While 
the army can be recruited at the proportional ex- 
pense of the whole nation, the militia must be 
raised from the poorer classes as rigorously as 
from the rich ; so that a man not paying taxes at 
all, a pauper, is liable to pay as much, or to be as 
much harassed for the public defence as one who 
possesses a hundred thousand pounds a year. 

It has, therefore, all the evils of a poll-tax. 
Nay worse ; on the rich it falls as a tax which they 
can easily pay; on the poor it falls as a compulso- 
ry levy of personal service. On the rich it ope- 
rates as alight fine ; on the poor as imprisonment, 
hard labor, or exile. It is then a burden imposed 
with the most severity on those orders of the com- 
munitv, which are least able to bear the load. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, kc. 305 

If is at least as absurd to defend the country in 
this equal manner, without regard to means, and 
to the stake which each citizen has in its preserva- 
tion, as it would be to make every man pay an 
equal income-tax, whether he be rich or poor. To 
let the burden f^ill indifferently on various classes, 
is as unjust as it would be to make all the wealthy 
orders pay a trifling contribution, and force all the 
poor to be servants of the public." 

Nor is this all ; for men who have been ever so 
little accustomed to a militia life, or playing at sol- 
diers, generally contrive to learn the habits of 
profligacy and licentiousness, which are for the 
most part intimately connected with the military 
calling ; although they do not learn the habits of 
military obedience and discipline, which in some 
measure restrain the evil tendency of those habits. 
And thus they carry a continual stream of pesti- 
lence and immorality into the bosom of their fami- 
lies, with which they either live constantly, or to 
which they return after a short absence spent in 
militia service; whence in process of time they 
convert nearly the whole community into one uni- 
versal mass of dissoluteness and corruption. 

And no statesman, even of ordinary experience 
and discretion, will doubt, that a nation cannot 
possibly long possess either freedom or indepen- 
dence, after the morals of its people are once tho- 
roughly tainted with the pollution of infamy and 
vice. 



306 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

Now, no such evil can accrue from the forma- 
tion of a regular army, which is generally compo- 
sed for the most part of the refuse of society, men 
of lawless and disorderly habits, whose separation 
from the other orders of the community, leaves the 
remainder of the population more healthy and 
virtuous. These men live mostly in barracks, dis- 
tinct from the other classes of citizens ; they have 
few or no ties to bind them to society ; they gen- 
erally remain in the army during life ; and the 
comparatively few that are disbanded have in gen- 
eral no decent families into which they can return, 
and carry disorder and vice with them ; they can 
only go back to that refuse of society, that floating 
popidation, from which they were taken to be- 
come soldiers ; and even here their actions can be 
restrained in their tendency to evil by the saluta- 
ry vigilance and vigor of a well-regulated police. 

Whoever desires to see how utterly ineffectual an 
ill-disciplined militia or soldiery is to resist the at- 
tacks of a regular army, will find an abundance 
of facts related by M. Lacretelle, junior, in his 
" Precis Historiqiie de la Revolution Frangaise : 
Assemhlee Legislative,'' published in Paris, in the 
year 1804, p. 178, 190. Ibid. " Convention Na- 
tionale^' published in Paris, 1806, vol. Qnd. p. 
136, 156. Ibid. '■'^ Directoire Executif'' published 
at Paris, in 1806, vol. \st. Introduction p. 137„ 
147, and vol. 1st. p. 194, 220. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 307 

I shall merely glance rapidly at one or two of 
the facts which M. Lacretelle relates. 

" In the mean time the French expected with 
extreme impatience the issue of the expedition 
into Belgium, projected by Dumouriez, who acted 
with extreme precipitation. General Rocham- 
beau, however, did not give way to these unfoun- 
ded hopes : he demanded time to exercise his 
troops ; or at least to bend them to a little subor- 
dination. In truth, the want of discipline in this 
army was extreme. 

In every garrisoned town the soldiers attended 
democratic clubs, and deliberated upon what 
might be the best mode of discipline in the army 
for themselves ; that is to say, they set all disci- 
pline at defiance. This licentious conduct was 
mistaken for an auspicious enthusiasm. After re- 
iterated orders from the war-minister, the advan- 
ced guard made a sortie from the walls of I^ille j at 
the distance of a few leagues it encountered the 
Austrian army, which was far inferior to itself in 
number. 

The French were so disorderly in the disposi- 
tion of their battalions that they sutTered them- 
selves to be attacked. A panic terror spread it- 
self universally among them, and the first shock 
put them entirely to the rout. On all sides was 
heard the cry of treason among the French sol- 
diers, who ran away, abandoning their cannon and 
baggage. General Rochambeau sallied from the 



308 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

walls of Lille to cover the flight of these valiant 
democrats ; who were no sooner within their walls 
than thev accused their commander Theobald 
Dillon of having betrayed them, and instantly 
murdered him, a brave and loyal chief, whom they 
had with so much cowardice abandoned. 

A second attack, led on by General Biron, was 
still more disgraceful to the French arms. It was 
directed against Mons ; the enemy showed itself 
at a little distance, and immediately the same cry 
of treason pervaded the ranks of the French, who 
all ran away as before. This defeat was even less 
bloody than the first, because they did not ap- 
proach so near to the Austrians as before. Two 
or three regular regiments protected their disor- 
derly retreat, with a steady and well-directed va- 
lor. In the mean time general Biron's camp was^ 
abandoned to the Austrians, and the French re- 
tired within the walls of Valenciennes. 

The news of these checks withered the sanguine 
and premature hopes which the democrats had en- 
tertained of the irresistible valor of the French 
raw conscripts, &c. &c. 

The Girondins, drunk with the delirium of a 
new revolution, were eager for a war, and they 
obtained both the one and the other of these 
scourges. The anarchy which preceded the fall 
of the throne was such that the allied kings and 
the emigrants of France flattered themselves with 
realizing the most chimerical hopes ; and the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 509 

House of Brandenburgh united itself with the 
House of Austria. 

The invasion of the king of Prussia took place. 
Was it caused by the day of the tenth of August ? 
But the immediate effect of this day was to favor 
a very rash undertaking, by spreading tumult and 
discord among the French armies, and discontent 
in the towns and villages. Was it caused by the 
day of the second of September ? I will only an- 
swer by one fact to this odious question. 

Fifteen thousand French soldiers fled ten leagues 
because they perceived fifteen hundred Prussian 
hussars advancing towards them. These runa- 
ways were some of the soldiers levied at Paris du- 
ring the massacres. Tiventy-two thousand French, 
commanded by Kellerman, at the affair of Valmi, 
stopped the progress oi seventi/ thousand enemies ; 
but these were old, regular, well-disciplined 
troops, who had manifested the greatest horror at 
the crimes committed by the democrats. 

Of all the five tyrants who, as masters of the 
Committee of Public Safety, were also masters of 
the Convention, and of all France ; namely, Robes- 
pierre, Billaud-Varennes, Collot d' Herbois, Saint- 
Just, and Couthon ; not one had the least acquain- 
tance with military affairs, or with grand views of 
policy. Their extreme ignorance saved them from 
the faults of presumption. These most iniquitous 
of men divided the whole power of the republic in- 
to two parts ^ they reserved for themselves the ex- 



310 MINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

ercise of oppression and massacre, andtliey confi- 
ded the uncontrolled domination of all the military 
power of France to the genius ofCarnot. 

And from that hour, by the introduction of the 
severest and most undeviating discipline^ the French 
soldiers became every where victorious, and car- 
ried the terror of the Great Nation over all the 
continent of Europe. Carnot created a new epoch 
in the military art. The German tactics employ- 
ed the soldiers as so many machines j the new tac- 
tics of France employed them as men. 

The French generals, exempt from prejudices, 
and many of them endowed with extraordinary 
genius, had no other care than to meditate upon 
all the causes which had concurred to produce 
their tirst victories ; to push onward to still more 
glorious conquests, with smaller armies and with 
less sacrifices; and to render themselves formida- 
ble even in the day of their defeat. By degrees, 
and by the most rigorous enforcement of military 
discipline, they converted their bands of raw, dis- 
obedient, disorderly soldiery into the best and the 
most terrible infantry of Europe. 

The Austrian cavalry however preserved their 
superiority over that of France even to the end 
of the war ; but this was for them on a thousand 
occasions only a barren advantage. They already 
perceived with humiliation how inferior was their 
artillery to that of the French. They came, but 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 311 

with tardy steps, at length to a more fortunate 
rivalry in this respect. 

The corps of engineers and of artillery afforded 
a multitude of well instructed men, fitted to direct 
the inexperience of the new armies of France. 
Carnot, who had himself belonged to the first of 
these two corps, protected them ; and they con- 
tributed to preserve France. This corps had a 
commission attached to the Committee of Public 
Safety ; or rather to Carnot, who in concert with 
it combined those plans of campaigns, vast and 
bold, which far surpassed even the most celebra- 
ted military combinations of Louvois. These mili- 
tary councils were composed of men whose repu- 
tation and valor recommended them to proscrip- 
tion ; such men as d'Arcon, Marescot, Dupont, 
Montalcmbert, yet notwithstanding their eminent 
services to their country they escaped the guillo- 
tine. 

Dugommier had retarded the invasion of Spain 
only to prepare the means of ensuring conquest. 
He knew that he should have to force fortresses 
which had been the wreck-rocks of the most illus- 
trious generals. He had provided himself with an 
immense besieging artillery, and had combined 
the means of transporting them across the Pyre- 
nean mountains. 

He correctly appreciated the courage of the 
Spaniards ; and foresaw that the circumspection 
which makes all their military operations so fatal 



3 IS HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

to them after they have gained a victory, would 
be advantageous to them while they acted upon 
the defensive. He applied himself to teach the 
officers of his army how to form the £jrand combi- 
nations of military tactics ; so that the school of 
Dugommier was fertile in distinguished gene- 
rals. 

But above all, he perceived the importance of 
bending into the severest subordination an army, 
which, formed amidst the civil troubles, and hither- 
to destined only to act against the helpless inhabi- 
tants of the defenceless villages of France, had 
become nothing more than one universal mass of 
that dark and tumultuous agitation which so pecu- 
liarly belongs to the fanaticism of democracy. 

He was about to penetrate into a country where 
the most determined superstition had brooded in 
the midnight of successive centuries. The irreli- 
gion, the vain and ordinary boasting of the French 
soldiers, had already manifested the ebullition of 
their zeal in the most obscene and abominable 
pleasantries, and in the most blasphemous profa- 
nations, at the very first aspect of the Spanish 
superstitions. Dugommier at length made the 
discipline of his soldiery ensure their future dis- 
cretion. 

Lastly, that I might finish my selection from 
so great a mass of the most conclusive facts, pro- 
ving the all-importance of steady discipline to 
render an army effectual for the accomplishment 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 313 

of all its purposes, offensive and defensive, every 
part of the service of the French army found in 
Bonaparte a vigilant inspector, or rather a creator 
of new resources. The infantry acquired a mobil- 
ity, more active, and more scientifically calcula- 
ted. The cavalry was incessantly trained to per- 
fection in all their manceuvres, upon the excellent 
horses which the plains of I.ombardy furnished. 

Bonaparte never rested from his efforts to per- 
fect one of the most precious inventions of his 
military genius ; I speak of the companies of 
guides ; a troop, whose inconceivable velocity sur- 
passes all the services that have ever been perfor- 
med by the light-armed soldiery. The artillery, 
the first object of his studies, received also from 
him new and vast improvements. 

One might see in all the soldiers of his army a 
rare mixture of the most passive obedience with 
an ingenious curiosity that prompted them to pre- 
sent their plans of military operation to their ge- 
neral. Bonaparte, while he applauded this dispo- 
sition, sometimes experienced its inconvenience. 
One day a chasseur, at the approach of an action 
which promised to be very difficult, advanced to- 
wards his general, and pointed out to him as a 
necessary operation the very same measure upon 
which he had himself determined: "wretch! be 
silent !" replied Bonaparte, who feared nothing 
more than the being betrayed by the sagacity of 

2 i^' 



314 HINl^ ON THE NATIONAL 

his own soldiers. After the battle was over, he 
sought in vain for the chasseur, whom he wished 
to make an officer. 

The subordination of all the generals, of all the 
.superior officers, to a young man only twenty-six 
years of age, who commanded them, redounded 
less to the splendor of his glory, than to the ener- 
gy of his character. The most lively emulation 
reigned among his generals, Joubert, Massena, 
Augereau, Serrurier, Dallemagne, Guyeux, Vau- 
bois, Murat, Lannes, Rampon, and others, which 
of them should be the best of the lieutenants of 
Bonaparte, but not one of them ever dreamed of 
becoming his rival. General Berthier, who aided 
him with all his military talents and intrepidity, 
was his most constant and intimate companion. 

The deplorable want of all discipline in the 
Spanish armies at the beginning of the revolution 
in the Peninsula, and their consequent shameful 
flight at the very first charge of the French troops, 
are fully developed in a very interesting " Nar- 
rative of the Campaign of the British Armn in Spain, 
commanded by Ids Excellency Lieiitenant-General 
Sir John Moore, K. B. &c. authenticated by oficiat 
papers and original letters ; by James Moore, Esq." 
(brother of the late gallant and ever to be honor- 
ed General Moore,) published in London, during 
the autumn of 1809. 1 shall merely avail myself 
of one or two facts on this point ; referring for 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 315 

further information to Mr. Moore's work, p. 128 
•—188. 

My motive, says colonel Symes, in a letter to 
Sir David Baird, bearing date Leon, l4th Decem- 
ber, 1808 ; for doubting if the aid which the Mar- 
quis de la Romana might bring, would be of any 
importance, arises from a sense of the inefficient state 
of his army, and the want of discipline in the men. 
It is morally impossible that they can stand be- 
fore a line of French infantry. 

At least one third of the Spanish muskets will 
not explode ; and a French soldier will load and 
fire his piece three times before a Spaniard can 
fire his twice. Men, however brave, cannot stand 
against such odds ; as to charging with the bayo^ 
net, if their arms were fit for the purpose, the men, 
though individuallij as gallant as possible, have no 
collective confidence to carry them on, nor ofticers 
to lead them ; they will therefore disperse proba- 
bly on ihe^first fire, and can never be rallied, until 
they voluntarily return to their general's stand- 
ard ; as in the case of the Marquis de la Roma- 
na's present army, almost wholly composed of 
fugitives from the battle of the north. 

A striking instance of this is given by the Mar- 
quis himself, who assured me that the Spaniards 
did not lose above a thousand men in their late 
actions with the French ; a proof, not of the 
weakness of the French, but of the incapacity of 
the Spaniards to resist them. In fact the French 



3\6 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

light troops decided the contest ; the Spaniards 
^ed before a desultory fire ; they saved themselves, 
and now claim merit for having escaped. 

By a repetition of such flights and re-assem- 
bling, the Spaniards may m the end become soldiers^ 
and greatly harass the enemy ; but as the British 
cannot pursue that mode of warfare, their Spanish 
allies are not much calculated to be of use to them 
on the day of battle, when they must either con- 
quer or be destroyed. 

I do not mean to undervalue the spirit or patri- 
otism oi ihe Spaniards, which I highly respect, and 
which in the end may effect their deliverance ; 
but they are not 720W, nor can they for a long time 
be sufficiently improved in the art of war, to be co- 
adjutors with the British in a general action ; the 
British therefore must stand or fall through their 
own means ; for if they place any reliance on Spa- 
nish aid for success in the field, they will find 
themselves egregiously deceived." 

A letter from the Duke de 1' Infantado to Mr. 
Frere the British minister in Spain, dated Cu- 
enca 13th December 1808, gives the following 
miserable account of the condition of the army 
under his command. 

" I have been obliged by the generals, and forced 
by circumstances, to take the command of this ar- 
my, until I receive the decision of the Junta. Un- 
fortunately a spirit of insurrection and discontent 
among the soldiery has placed me at my present 
post : and it is most assuredly, a very disagreeable 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 317 

situation for me to have to correct inveterate evils, 
and to take tiie necessary measures to re-establish 
order and discipline so tofallij neglected. 

I cannot describe to you the condition in which 
I found this body of troops ; nearly famished, 
without shoes, a great part without uniforms, with- 
out ammunition, and most part of its baggage 
lost ; reduced to about nine thousand infantry and 
two thousand cavalry ; and above all, having total- 
ly lost all confidence in their ofiicers.** 

But to come a little closer to the point ; what 
has the American militia itself ever done to justi- 
fy the pompous elogium so lavishly heaped upon 
it, " that all the veteran troops of Europe would 
soon melt away, like the dews of the morning, be- 
fore the superior prowess and freedom-strung vi- 
gor of the hardy yeomanry of the United States ?" 

The militia of this country, both during the revo- 
lutionary war and since, has always run away with^ 
out fighting whenever it has had an opportunity. 
General Lee was so well aware of this propensity 
of the militia-men, that he used to ride along the 
lines, on the verge of an expected battle, and 
say, " now my lads of the militia, let me beseech 
you to fire once before you run away." But even 
this modest request of the general was very seldom 
granted. 

The pages of General Marshal's Life of Wash- 
ington bear ample testimony, that during the re- 
volutionary war the \^'hole interests of America 



518 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

were several times on the point of being sacriticed 
to a blind and infatuated perseverance in the 
scheme of militia, and of short enlistments ; both 
of which amount to the same thing, namely, the 
substitution of an undisciplined rabble in the room 
of a well-ordered and well-appointed regular army^ 
General AVashington repeatedly pressed upon 
Congress the necessity of embodying a regular 
army, without which it was impossible to save the 
country, as the militia was not to be depended 
upon, either for its courage in the field of battle, 
or for its obedience to discipline in the camp. 

In Marshal's Life of Washington, vol. 2d, p. 
245—265—279 ; 3d. vol. 2—26 ; 4th vol. 55—80; 
numberless facts are recorded to prove the pitiful 
incflicacy of the militia-s3^stem for any purposes 
of service or of fighting. It should be particular- 
ly noted also that the yeomanry, the farmers of the 
United States, uniformly submitted, without, ^fight- 
ing, to the British wherever and whenever they 
appeared ;* and that all the hard fighting with the 
enemy throughout the whole war was performed 
by the American REGULAR army. 

*' The people of New-England were incompara- 
bly better armed than those of any other part of 
the union. But as all the American troops had 
been raised, not bj^ Cojigress, but by the colonitd 
or state governments, each of which had a differ- 
ent establishment, no uniformity existed ^mong 
the regiments. In Massachusetts the private men 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 319 

had chosen their own officers, and felt themselves 
no way inferior to their commanders. Animated 
with the spirit of liberty, and collected for its de- 
fence, they were not sensible of the importance of 
discipline, and would not be subjected to its re- 
gulations. 

The army was consequently in a state of entire 
disorganization ; and the difficulty of establishing 
the necessary principles of order and subordina- 
tion, always considerable among raw troops, was 
greatly increased by the short terms for vrhich en- 
listments had been made. The time of service of 
many was to expire in November, and none were 
to continue longer than the last of December^ 
The early orders issued by General Washington 
evidence a loose and unmilitary state of things 
even surpassing what might reasonably be infer- 
red from the circumstances under which the war 
was commenced. 

The high spirit and enthusiastic ardor which had 
brought such numbers into the field after the bat- 
tle of Lexington, was already beginning to dissi- 
pate, and alacrity for the service very materially 
diminished. Many were unwilling to continue in 
it, and others annexed special conditions to their 
further engagement. Very many insisted on stip- 
ulating for leave to visit their families at the expi- 
ration of their present term of service; and others, 
suspending all decision, neither gave in their 
names to retire from, or to continue in the army." 



320 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

The truth is, that, if the British generals had not 
been pre-determined to make no use even of the 
small regular army which they had under their 
command, America must have given up the con- 
test, almost without a struggle ; for her militia and 
short-enlistment men, could never be depended 
upon in the hour of danger; and none of the 
American generals ever made any head against the 
enemy, excepting the desperate action of Bun- 
ker's hill, where the Americans fought in sight of 
their wives, children, and dearest connections, 
until they had been allowed sufficient time to form 
a regular army, with which they could fight steadi- 
ly and desperately ; the people of the United States 
furnishing the most excellent materials for a fine 
army, by their being in general, active, able^ 
bodied men, and possessing great individual valor 
and intrepidity. 

A letter from General Washington to Congress, 
dated I9th January, 1776, is conclusive as to 
the miserable inefficacy of all militia-men, or troops 
enlisted only for a short period of service ; he says : 

" That this cause precipitated the fate of the 
brave and much to be lamented General Mont- 
gomery, and brought on the defeat which followed 
thereupon, I have not the most distant doubt ; for 
had he not been apprehensive of his troops leaving 
him at so important a crisis, but continued the 
blockade of Quebec, a capitulation, from the best 
accounts I have been able to collect, must inevita- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 391 

biy have followed ; and that we were not obliged 
at one time to dispute these lines, (where Washing- 
ton was then posted) under disadvantageous cir- 
umstances, proceeding from the same cause, to 
wit, the troops disbanding of themselves before the 
militia could be got in, is to me a matter of won- 
der and astonishment ; and proves that General 
Howe was either unacquainted with our situation, 
or restrained by his instructions from putting 
any thing to hazard until his reinforcements 
should arrive. 

The instance of General Montgomery, (I men- 
tion it because it is a striking one, for a number 
of others might be adduced,) proves, that instead 
of having men to take advantage of circumstances, 
you are in a manner compelled, right or wrong, 
to make circumstances yield to a secondary con- 
sideration. " Since the first of December I have 
been devising every means in my power to secure 
these encampments J and though I am sensible 
that we never have since that period been able 
to acton the offensive, and at times not in a condi- 
tion to defend, yet the cost of marching home one 
set of men, and bringing in another, the havoc 
and waste occasioned by the first, the repairs ne- 
cessary for the second, with a thousand other inci- 
dental charges and inconveniencies which have 
arisen and which it is scarcely possible either to 
recollect or describe, amount to near as much as 
the keeping up a respectable body of troops 



32'i HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

the whole time, ready for any emergency, vvouict 
have done. 

To this may be added, that you never can have 
a well disciplined army. 

To make men well acquainted with the duties 
of a soldier requires time. To bring them under 
proper discipline and subordination, not only re- 
quires time, but is a work of great difficulty ; and 
in this army, where there is so little distinction 
between officers and soldiers, requires an uncom- 
mon degree of attention. To expect then the 
same service from raw and undisciplined recruits, 
as from veteran soldiers, is to expect what never 
did, and perhaps never will happen. 

Men who are familiarized to danger, approach 
it without thinking; whereas troops unused to ser- 
vice, apprehend danger where no danger exists. 

Three things prompt men to a regular discharge 
of their duty in time of action; — natural bravery 
— hope of reward — and fear of punishment. The 
two first are common to the untutored and the dis- 
ciplined soldier ; but the last most obviously dis- 
tinguishes one from the other. A coward taught 
to believe that if he breaks his ranks and abandons 
his colors, he will be punished with death by his 
own party, will take his chance against the enemy y 
but the man who thinks little of the one, and is- 
fearful of the other, acts from present fears, re- 
gardless of consequences. 

Again, men of a day's standing will not look 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 323 

forward ; and from experience we find that as the 
time approaches for their discharge, they grow 
careless of their arms, ammunition, camp-utensils, 
&c. nay, even the barracks themselves have felt 
uncommon marks of wanton depredation ; and we 
are laid under fresh trouble and additional ex- 
pense in providing for every fresh party, at a time 
wiien we find it next to impossible to procure the 
articles of first necessit}^ To this may be added 
the seasoning which new recruits must have to a 
camp, and the loss consequent thereupon. 

But this is not all. Men engaged for a short 
limited time only, have their officers too much in 
their power. To obtain a degree of popularity, in 
order to induce a second enlistment, a kind of fa- 
miliarity takes place which brings on a relaxation 
of discipline, unlicensed furloughs, and other in- 
dulgencies, incompatible with order and good 
government ; by which means the latter part of 
the time for which the soldier was engaged, is spent 
in undoing what it required much labor to incul- 
cate in the first. 

To go into an enumeration of all the evils we 
have experienced in this late great change of the 
army, and the expense incidental to it, to say noth- 
ing of the hazard we have run, and must run, be- 
tween the discharging of one army and the enlist- 
ment of another, unless an enormous expense of 
militia is incurred, would greatly exceed the 
bounds of a letter. If Congress have any reason 



324 HINTS ON J HE NATIONAL 

to believe there will be occasion for troops anotlier 
year, and consequently for another enlistment, 
they would save money and have hifinitely better 
troops, if they were, even at the bounty of twenty, 
thirty, or more dollars, to engage the men already 
enlisted until January next, and such others as 
may be wanted to complete the establishment, for 
and during the war. 

I,,uill not undertake to say that the men may 
be had on these terms ; but I am satisfied that it 
will never do to let the matter alone, as it was last 
yeai . until the time of service is near expiring. 
In the first place, the hazard is too great ; in the 
next, the troubles and perplexity of disbanding 
one army and raising another at the same instant, 
and in such a critical situation as the last was, is 
scarcely in the power of words to describe, and 
such as no man, who has once experienced it, will 
ever undergo again." 

" Unfortunately, Congress did not then feel so 
sensibly as their General, the utter incapacity of 
temporary armies to resit;t those which are perma- 
nent. Nor were his officers of high rank as yet 
sufficiently sensible of this fact. In a council 
held previous to the new modelling of the army, 
they were of opinion that the enlistments might 
be for only one year. 

But this cardinal blunder of relying on militia, 
and the consequent short enlistments of the regular 
troops, ought to be remembered, however the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 225 

dangers and inconveniencies which it produced 
might now be forgotten. Militia were not nnere- 
}y depended upon as auxiliaries, and as covering 
the country from the sudden irruptions of small 
parties, for which purposes they might perhaps 
be competent, but they were also relied on as con- 
stituting the main body and strength of the army. 

Their absolute incapacity to maintain this sta- 
tion in the military arrangements of any country, 
when engaged with an enemy of nearly equal 
strength, and employing a regular army at all 
times capable of being used to its utmost extent, 
was at length demonstrated even to the convic- 
tion of scepticism itself; and under the weight 
of this conviction, every effort was made by Con- 
gress, though almost too late, to remedy the very 
extensive mischief which this fatal error had alrea- 
dy produced. And not the least of these evils 
was the difficulty attending all attempts to cure it. 

For men unaccustomed to submit their actions 
to the control of others, bear impatiently that de- 
gree of authority, and submit reluctantly to that 
subordination, so indispensably necessary to their 
own safety ; and without which, said General 
Washington, an army is only aji armed mob^ inca- 
pable of being applied to the purposes of its for- 
mation. 

Raw soldiers too can seldom be induced to pay 
that attention to cleanliness, to their persons, their 
lodgings, their food, and lo many other minute 



326 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

circumstances, on which the health of alarg^e body 
of men collected together materially depends. 
They are therefore found to be much more expo- 
sed to disease, and to be swept off by sickness in 
much greater numbers, than those who have been 
taught by experience the value of attending to. 
those circumstances which the young recruit never 
sufficiently appreciates. Of this the unexampled 
mortality of the northern and middle armies of 
America, at the beginning of the revolutionary 
war, furnished evidence the most melancholy and 
conclusive. 

The total change also in their situation, their 
duties, and mode of living, contributes greatly to 
render the military life in the first instance, un- 
pleasant to those who engage in it. 

Habit conquers these impressions, and removes 
many of the exciting causes. Whence the veteran 
soldier is generally attached to the camp. But 
regulars engaged only for a short, and militia en- 
gaged for a still shorter time, receive all these un- 
favorable impressions, without remaining long 
enough to permit them to wear off. They conse- 
quently acquire a distaste for the service, and on 
their return home, generally spread among their 
kindred, friends and neighbors, the prejudices 
which they have themselves imbibed." 

Nor have the militia of the United States con- 
ducted themselves with greater gallantry or atten- 
tion to military discipline since, than they did du- 



BAJSKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 327 

ring, the revolutionary war; as will evidently 
appear from the following testimony, adduced in 
a court-martial held on Brigadier-General Josiali 
Harmer, to investigate his conduct, as com- 
manding officer of the expedition against the Mi- 
ami Indians in the year 1790. I'he court of in- 
quiry was held at Fort Washington, September 
15lh, 1791. 

September 16th. The court met agreeably to 
adjournment ; and Major Ferguson being called 
in and sworn, deposed as followeth : 

That some time about the 15th of July, 1790, 
it was determined to carry on an expedition 
against the Miami villages. One thousand mili- 
tia from Kentucky, and five hundred from Penn- 
sylvania, and wiiat could be collected of the First 
United States regular Regiment, and one compa- 
ny of artillery was to form the army. 

The militia from Kentucky began to assemble 
at Fort Washington about the middle of' Septem- 
ber ; they were very ill equipped, being almost 
destitute of camp-kettles and axes. Their arms 
were generally very bad, and unfit for service ; 
sometimes a rifle was brought to be repaired with- 
out a lock, and sometimes without a stock. The 
owners were asked how they came to think that 
their guns could be repaired at that time ? They 
replied that they were told in Kentucky, that all 
repairs would be made at Fort Washington. Ma- 
ny of the militia-officers said that they had no 



328 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

idea of their being half the number of bad arms 
in the whole district of Kentucky, as were then in 
the hands of their own men. 

As soon as the principal part of the Kentucky 
militia arrived, General Harmer began to organ- 
ize them ; in this he had many difficulties to en- 
counter. Colonel Trotter aspired to the com- 
mand, although Colonel Hardin was the eldest 
officer ; and in this he was encouraged both by 
men and officers, who openly declared, that unless 
Colonel Trotter commanded them, they would re- 
turn home. After two or three days, the business 
was settled, and they were formed into three bat- 
talions, under the command of Colonel Trotter; 
and Colonel Hardin had the command of all the 
militia. 

The last of the Pennsylvania militia arrived on 
the 25th of September. They were equipped 
nearly as those of Kentucky, but were worse arm- 
ed -y several without any arms. 

Among the militia, both of Kentucky and Penn- 
sylvania, were a great many hardly able to bear 
arms, such as old infirm men, and young boys; 
they were not such as might be expected from a 
frontier country, namely, the robust, active wood- 
men, well accustomed to arms, eager and alert to 
revenge the injuries done to themselves and to 
their connexions, A great number of them were 
substitutes who probably had never fired a gun. 
Major Paul of Pennsylvania said, that many of 



BANKRUPTCV OF BRITAIN, vStC. 3i29 

his men were so awkward, that they could not take 
their gun locks off to oil them, and put them on 
again ; nor could tliey put in their flints so as to 
be useful, and even of such materials the numbers 
came far short of what was ordered. 

On the I7th of October, the army arrived at 
the Miami village ; here were evident signs of the 
enemy having quitted the place in the greatest 
confusion. Indian cows and dogs came into their 
camp this day, which induced them to believe the 
families were not far off. A party of three hun- 
dred men, with three days provision, under the 
command of Colonel Trotter, was ordered to ex- 
amine the country around their camp ; but con- 
trary to the General's orders, returned the same 
evening. 

This conduct of Colonel Trotter did not meet 
with General Harmar's approbation ; and Colo- 
nel Hardin, anxious for the character of his coun- 
trymen, wished to have the command of the same 
detachment for the remaining two days ; which 
was given to him. This command marched on 
the morning of the 19th, and was the same day 
shamefulhj defeated. Colonel Hardin told him, 
that the number of Indians which attacked his 
men did not exceed one hvndred and^fiffy, and that 
had his people fought, or even rnade a s/iow of 
forming to fight, he was certain the Indians would 
have run. But on the Indians firing, which was 

2 U 



350 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

at a great distance, the militia ran away, numbers 
throwing down their arms ; nor could he rally 
them ; Major Ray confirmed the same. 

Question by the court. What were your rea- 
sons for thinking punishment for neglect of duty 
out of the question ? 

Answer. The state of the army being such, 
that it obliged the General not to do any thing 
which might tend to irritate the militia. 

Lieutenant Hartshorn was sworn and deposed 
thus : 

Question by the court. In what manner did 
you oppose the enemy when you were attacked 
on the 19th of October ? 

Answer. By endeavoring to form the line to 
charge them. 

Question. What troops came within your notice 
that attempted to form when charged ? 

Answer. Not more than thi?'ti/ federal troops, 
and ten militia. 

Question. What became of the rest of the 7ni- 
litia ? 

Answer. They gave way and ran. 

Question. Do you think that if the militia in 
that action had been properly formed, and in time, 
they were sufficient to beat the enemy ? 

Answer. They were. 

Question. What was the result of the action of 
the 19th, were the continental troops and the ten 
militia defeated .'* 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 331 

Answer. They were cut to pieces except six 
or seven. 

Question. From the conduct of the militia^ do 
you think that the General had a right to expect 
a7iy support from them, if he had been attacked. 

Answer. / don't think he had. 

Ensign Morgan being sworn, deposed, thus: 

Question by the court. Do you think that the 
party of militia that were attached to Major IVyl" 
lys detachment on the 21st of October, were suf- 
ficient to defeat the Indians if they had done their 
duty ? 

Answer. If they had been together, I think 
they were. 

Question, What was the disposition of the mili- 
tia after you returned to the army, in the evening 
of the 21st of October ; were they well-affected to 
the service and orderly .'' 

Answer. They were very disorderly, and very 
inattentive to their duty; and some appearances 
of mutiny among them, with both officers and 
men ; and they turned out upon one occasion par- 
ticularly, to oppose a punishment that had been 
ordered by the General. 

Lieutenant Denny being sworn, deposed, thus : 

That on the 15th and 16th of September the Ke^i- 
tucky militia arrived ; but instead of seeing active 
riflemen, such as are supposed to inhabit the 
frontiers, they saw a parcel of men, young in the 
country, and totally unexperienced in the busi- 



339. HINTS ON ilJE NATIONAL 

ness they came upon ; so much so, that many of 
them did not know how to keep their arms in 
firing order. Indeed, their whole object seemed 
to be nothing more than to see the country, with- 
out rendering any service whatever. 

Kentucky seemed as if she wished to comply 
with the requisitions of government as inefjcctu- 
allij as possible; for it was evident that two-thirds 
of the men served only to swell their numbers. 
On the 19th September, a small detachment of 
Pennsylvania militia arrived ; and the remainder 
on the 25th. they were similar to the other, too 
many substitutes. The General lost no time in 
organizing them, though he met with many diffi- 
culties ; the Colonels were disputing for the com- 
mand, and the one most popular was the least enti- 
tled to it. 

On the 18th of October, Colonel Trotter was 
ordered out with three hundren men, militia and 
regulars, to reconnoitre the country, and to en- 
deavor to make some discoveries of the enemy ; 
he marched but a iew miles, when his advanced 
horsemen came upon two Indians and killed 
them ; the Colonel was contented with this victo- 
ry, and returned to camp. 

Colonel Hardin was displeased because Colonel 
Trotter did not execute his orders, and requested 
the General to give him the command of the par- 
ty ; it was granted, and accordingly Hardin 
marched next morning; but he believed he had 
not two-thirds of his numbers when two miles from 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 333 

camp ; for to his certain knowledge, many of the 
militia left him on the march, and returned to 
their companies. 

Colonel Hardin came at length upon a party of 
Indians not exceeding one Jmndred^hviX, was worsted, 
owing entirely to the scandalous behavior of the mi- 
litia, many of whom never fired a shot ; but ran 
off at the ^first noise of the Indians, and left the 
few regulars to be sacrificed; some of the militia 
never halted in their flight until they crossed the 
Ohio. 

The army in the mean time was employed in 
burning and destroying the houses and corn, 
shifting their position from one town to another. 
On the 21st of October the army, having burned 
five villages, besides the capital town, and con- 
sumed or destroyed nearly twenty thousand bush- 
els of corn in ears ; took up the line of march on 
the route back to Fort Washington, and encamp- 
ed about eight miles from the ruins. About nine 
o'clock, P. M. the General ordered out four hun- 
dred choice men, militia and regulars, under the 
command of Major Wyllys, to return to the 
towns, intending to surprise any parties that 
might be assembled there; supposing that the In- 
dians would collect to see how things were left. 

The General had felt the enemy, knew their 
strength, and calculated much upon the success 
of this enterprise ; it was the general opinion that 
the force of the savages was nothing equal to this 



334 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

detachment; and unless by some such means 
there was no possibility of getting any advantage 
of them. But the best laid plan was defeated by 
the disobedience of the militiay who ran in pursuit 
of small parties, and left Major Wyllys unsup- 
ported ; the consequence was that the Major with 
most part of the regulars were killed. 

The General now lost all confidence in the mi- 
litia; the regular troops were only two hundred; 
and if the enemy had made an attack upon the 
camp that evening or the next morning, the mili- 
tia were so panic-struck, that very few of them 
would have stood, and the sick and wounded, and 
all the stores, artillery, &c. would have fallen a 
prey to the savages. 

The militia on their return back to Fort Wash- 
ington began to be refractory, showing great signs 
of a revolt, discharging their pieces in open de- 
fiance of the general orders ; some of them how- 
ever were detected and punished, which gave um- 
brage, and was afterwards the cause of many ill- 
natured reports, spread without any foundation, 
in order to injure General Harmar's reputation. 

Major Zeigler being sworn, deposed. That on 
the 8th of October Colonel Trotter was detached 
with three hundred men of militia, including thirty 
federal troops, but returned the same day without 
bringing any information. The next morning Co- 
lonel Hardin took the command of the same party -, 
and on discovering the enemy, his militia-men who 



"BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 335 

were in the rear, would not come up, and support 
those engaged in front ; and very feio of those in. 
front stopped, but ran, and the militia tied in a 
shameful manner ; and the few federal troops not 
supported, fell a sacrifice. 

A sergeant of militia behaving very ill at that 
time, could not be brought to trial, on account of a 
brother of his being a captain, who made parties 
that would have been attended with bad conse- 
quences, should he be punished ; his brother decla- 
ring^ that he would raise some men, and bid defiance. 

Question by the Court. — I think, sir, you said, 
that on the 15th October, at three o'clock, P. M. 
you arrived at the Miami village ; what did you do 
after your arrival there ; were the militia in good 
order ? 

Answer. When we arrived we were very much 
fatigued ; having marched twenty-eight miles that 
day, I directed that my own men should not go 
thirty yards from camp. The militia like a rabble 
strolled into the neighbouring villages, in parties of 
thirty or forty after plunder ; and such was our situ- 
ation that a hundred and fifty warriors might have 
beat us off the ground. 

Question. — Did you see any desire in the militia to 
return to the ground where Major Wyllys was de- 
feated ; or do you suppose they would have gone 
had they been ordered to go ? 

Answer. I supposed they would ?wt have gone : 
they appeared to be panic-struck. 



S36 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

Captain Doyle being sworn, deposed, That he 
was in the detachment of the 1 4th of October; 
that the behaviour of the militia in that detachment 
was very disgraceful ; they ran from town to town in 
pursuit of plunder, co7?/ran/ to orders ; and on the 
arrival of General Harmar at the town, two thirds 
of them dispersed in the same manner. 

On their return home the militia showed great 
signs of revolt ; and General Harmar would have 
been justified in arresting one or two of their most po- 
pular field-officers, and sending them home with dis- 
grace ; but a thing of that kind would have broke up 
the army. No part of that General's conduct du- 
ring the whole campaign could be censured, except 
his showing too much lenity to the militia, and 
thanking them for their conduct when they merited 
punishment. 

Captain Armstrong being sworn, deposed, That 
lie was in the action of the 19th, that after he had 
discovered the enemy's fires at a distance he inform- 
ed Colonel Hardin, who replied that they would not 
fight, and rode in front of the advance, until fired on 
from behind the fires when he retreated, and all the 
militia ran away^ except nine, who continued with 
the colonel, and were instantly killed, together with 
twenty-four of the federal troops. The Indians did 
not amount to one hundred men; some of whom 
were mounted, others armed with rifles, and the ad- 
vance with tomahawks onlv. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 33? 

Captain Armstrong was of opinion, that if Colo- 
nel Trotter had proceeded on the 18th, according to 
his orders, having killed the enemy's sentinels, they 
would easily have surprised their camp and defeated 
them ; or if Colonel Hardin had arranged his troops, 
or made any military disposition on the 19th, they 
would have gained a victory. Their defeat was 
owing to two causes, the un-officer-like conduct of 
Colonel Hardin, who vvas a brave man, and the 
coivardly behavioj' of the militia; many of whom 
threw down their arms loaded, and none except the 
party under his, Captain Armstrong's command, 
fired a gun. What he saw of the conduct of the 
militia on that day, and what he felt by being under 
the command of a man who wanted military talents, 
had determined him not willingly to fight with the 
one or be commanded by the other. 

Ensign Gaines, (who was Captain of Horse in 
General Harmar's expedition) being sworn, deposed. 
That he had served on a number of expeditions 
against the savages, undertaken by the militia of 
Kentucky y and that he never saw in any of them 
the like good order and military arrangement which 
accompanied General Harmar's expedition. The 
people in Kentucky never alleged any charge against 
General Harmar, until Colonel John Hardin had ac- 
quitted himself before a Board of Inquiry of several 
charges exhibited against him, respecting his con- 
duct on that expedition ; when the populace, fmd= 
ing that nothing which they could say to the prejiu 

2x 



SS8 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

dice of the Colonel would be believed, levelled their 
malice at General Harmar; even against whom 
nothing would have been said in that country, if a 
Baptist Preacher's son in Kentucky had not been 
whipped in the miliiia for disobedience of orders. 

Question by the Court. I think you say you have 
been in several expeditions against the Indians ; did 
the militia who were with General Harmar conduct 
(themselves) better or worse than those in other ex- 
peditions ? 

Answer. Much better, Sir. 

Question. Was you in the action of the 19th of 
October ? 

Answer. I was. 
Question. Is it your opinion, that if the militia had 
been properly arranged in the action, and would 
have fought, they were sufficient to defeat the In- 
dians ? 

Answer. Yes, for the Indians were surprised, 
and if Colonel Trotter had not returned on the pre- 
ceding day, he must have been in their camp, and 
completely defeated them. 

Question. Do you think that, if General Harmar 
bad ordered the army back, after the action of the 
21st, the militia would have gone? 

Answer. They would not have gone willingly. 
I think in that case there would have been danger 
of mutiny. When tlie militia of Major Wyllys' de- 
tachment were ordered lo march, they were unwil- 
ling to go ; and some so much so> as to cry. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 33$ 

As a contrast to the total want of all d^scipli ne 
and subordination in the American militia, I shall 
adduce a single instance of the high state of military 
discipline which Bonaparte keeps up in his army. 

In the year 1804, Bonaparte went to Boulogne 
to review what he called the army of England. He 
saw a single soldier straggling from his ranks ; he 
ordered him to fall into his place, the soldier refa^ 
sed ; he instantly ordered a Serjeant's company to 
shoot the soldier ; the company refused ; he then 
ordered a captain's battalion to shoot the company ; 
the battalion refused ; he then ordered the regiment 
to shoot the battalion, the regiment refused ; he 
then ordered a brigade to shoot the regiment, the 
brigade obeyed, and the whole regiment was mowed 
down to a man with grape-shot and mnsquetry, for 
a breach of military discipline in disobeying the 
orders of their general. 

In acting thus Bonaparte displayed at once his 
energy and wisdom ; for the commander of an army, 
or the government of a nation, that ever suffers his 
or its orders to be disobeyed with impunity, can 
never be effective to any great or good purpose ; 
but becomes justly the object of contempt at home, 
and of scorn abroad. 

I should not have dwelt so long on this head ; but 
unfortunately the same prejudice in favor of the 
militia-system prevails in England, as much as in 
the United States. 

I would now ask if the American militia would 



340 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

be quite sufficient to defeat the veteran troops of 
Bonaparte; seeing, that if Britain be destroyed, 
the enemy will have powerful fleets commanding 
every sea, river, creek, and bay, from which the Uni- 
ted States can possibly be annoyed and harassed. 
Surely, whoever is acquainted with the quickness and 
activity of the French; their intelligence in a strange 
country ; their skill, their ardor, and extraordinary 
success in desultory warfare; will never advise any 
nation to act against them with an undisciplined, dis- 
orderly militia. 

But lest I should be considered as biassed or mis- 
informed on this subject, I refer the reader to the de- 
cisive opinion of the late celebrated Fisher Ames, 
(a man to whom few ages or countries have produ- 
ced an equal,) as to the result of Britain's ruin to 
the United States : see Mr. Ames's works, page 
SQ^, written in March 1808, published at Bos- 
ton in Massachusetts, in the year 1809. 

" Mr. Jefferson knows that there is but one obsta- 
cle to the progress of French power, and that is the 
hated British navy. Suppose that navy destroyed, 
would our liberty survive a week ? The wind of the 
blow that destroys British independence would 
strike our own senseless to the earth. Boastful and 
vain as we are, the very thought of Independence 
would take flight from our hearts. If Britain falls, 
will not America fall .'' shall we not lie in the dust at 
the conqueror's foot, aad with servile afl'ected joy re- 
receive our chains without resistance ? 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 341 

It will ever be fashionable to boast of the invinci- 
ble spirit of freemen, as long as power is to be 
won by flattery. We remark that some speakers in 
Congress assume it as a thing impossible, that an 
invading foe could make any progress in our coun- 
try. Others, in party-opposition to them, either blind 
to the truth, or afraid to speak it, assent to the asser- 
tion, that the United States are unconquerable. 
Thus a dangerous delusion acquires not only a plau- 
sible authority, but it seems to be a violation of the 
sanctity of the national faith to expose it. 

But if Britain were conquered, Bonaparte could 
have her fifteen hundred ships, and the ships of all 
the rest of Europe, to transport an army under one 
of his lieutenants to our shores, as numerous as he 
might think necessary to ensure conquest. Power 
seldom long wants means. He could send over 
twenty thousand, and more if wanted, of his dis- 
mounted horsemen, with their saddles, bridles, and 
equipments. He would not fail to secure horses 
from our islands, such as Long-Island, and the exten- 
sive necks and promontories, which could not be de- 
fended against him. 

Being master of the sea, he could make large and 
frequent detachments from his camp to defenceless 
regions, which he would strip. To this let it be ad- 
ded, that the American army, if we should have an 
army, being concentred to some well chosen moun- 
tainous place, would of course leave the cities a 
prey. 



342 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

Thus it cannot be doubted, that he would have 
horses to remount his cavalry. Suppose a numerous 
French army, having two-fifths of its force cavalry, 
with all the formidable thousands of light artillery 
that brought Austria, Prussia, and Russia to his feet 
in a day — would the American militia face this ar- 
my ? Suppose they do not; then our cities, our whole 
coast, and all the open cultivated country are imme- 
diately French. Would ihe millions on and near the 
coast take flight to the mountains? could they sub- 
sist, or would they remain long unmolested there? 
Mountains, when no equal army was in the field, ne* 
ver did stop the soldiers of Bonaparte. 

Let us come back then to our miliiia armi/t since 
Mve are obliged to see that the French would effectu- 
ally conquer our country, if our army should not be 
able to check their rapid progress. Could we collect 
an army ? On all the coast would be terror, busy 
concern to hide property, and to shelter women, 
helpless age, and infancy. The sea-ports would not 
only retain their own men, but call in those of the 
neighbouring country to defend them. Probably 
they would ask an addition of troops from govern- 
ment. 

It would therefore be a very difficult and slow work 
to collect a militia-army equal in numbers to the 
French. Nearly fifty thousand men were sent to 
Egypt, and as many more to Saint Domingo. Had 
either of those armies landed here, could we have 
faced them with an equal force, equal in numbers .f 
We think not. 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, kc. 343 

Let Mr. Jefferson ask any old, skilful, continen- 
tal officer, if our army oi 7nilitia, would push bayo- 
nets with the French ? No military man would 
say, that our militia would stand the tug of war, 
and defeat the French. 

Did we not, cries some wordy patriot, contend 
with the British ? The answer would be long, to 
make it as decisive as we think it is. The British 
were cooped up in Boston a year. In 1778 Sir 
William Howe had only five hundred cavalry; 
and he alwavs moved as if he was more afraid of 
our beating him, than resolved to beat us. 

At Long-Island Washington was totally defeat- 
ed, owing to the militia giving way, and might 
have been easily made prisoner with his whole 
army. But he was not pursued. In the third year 
of the war, his troops, and even the militia of the 
states in the scene of the war, had become consid- 
erably disciplined. 

It is not denied, that with three years' prepara- 
tion we could have an army ; but we make 710 prep- 
aration ; and unless we e?ilist our men, the parade 
of militia is a serious buffoonery. AVhenSir Wil- 
liam Howe forced our men from the field, he had 
no cavalry ; and our men could run away faster 
than his could pursue. But the French, expe- 
rience has shewn, that when they win battles they 
decide the war. Myriads of cavalry press upon 
th,e fugitives, and in half a day the defence of a na- 



344 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

tion is captive or slain. Defeat is irremediable 
destruction. 

Would our stone-walls stop their horse ? Then 
the pioneers would pull down those walls. Shoot- 
ing from behind fences would not stop an army ; 
nor would our militia venture upon a measure 
that would be fatal ; the numerous and widely-ex- 
tended flanking parties would soon cut off all such 
adventurers to a man. 

With an army less than two hundred thousand 
men, but with double the common proportion of 
cavalry, Bonaparte has overrun the German emr 
pire, Austria, Prussia, and all continental Europe, 
from the Adriatic to the Baltic s rich, populous, 
and computed formerly to arm a million of sol- 
diers. . 

The democratic gazettes have uniformly main- 
tained that Bonaparte's unvaried success was ow- 
ing to the real, irresistible superiority of the French 
armsj to their newly-improved tactics, and to the 
impetuosity of their attacks. All this we believe. 
W^e firmly, though unwillingly, believe, that as the 
old Romans were superior to their enemies, so the 
French are at least as much superior to their ene- 
mies, by land. The vast extent of both empires, 
Roman and French, grew out of this superiority. 

Hence we conclude, that if our jnilitia-army 
should figlit a battle, they would lose it. They 
would inevitably lose it, and the loss of the battle 
would be the loss of their country. The French 
would hold the coast by their fleet, and the interior 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 345 

by their army. Be it remembered too, that Cana- 
da would be French if Britain should be subdued ; 
and that the Floridas and Louisiana are French 
ah'e-.^Hy. 

Where then would be the security of the moun- 
tains ? Much dreadful experience, and more dread- 
ful ietirs, would follow the conquest, till at length, 
like the rest of the world, we should enjoy the 
q'liet of despair and the sleep of slavery. Popu- 
larity, as dear perhaps as liberty, will be sought 
no more ; and we shall place our happiness, if 
slaves may talk of happiness, in the smiles, or still 
better, in the neglect of a master. 

We have purposely omitted an infinity of proofs 
in corroboration of our melancholy conclusion, 
that in case of a French invasion, the country 
would be literally conquered. We should tamely 
accept a Corsican prince for a king, and in virtue 
of our alliance with France, agree by treaty to 
maintain French troops enough to keep down in- 
surrections. 

Far be jt from us to believe that our fellow-citi- 
zens in the militia are not individually brave. Their 
very bravery would ensure their defeat ; they 
would dare to attempt what militia cannot at- 
chieve. Nor let the heroic speech-makers pretend 
that our citizens would swear to live free or die ; 
and that they would resist till the country was de- 
populated, or emancipated. 

There is no foundation in hunaan nature for this 
9. Y 



346 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

boast. The Swiss were free, and loved their liber- 
ty as well as men ever did ; yet they are enslaved , 
and quiet in their chains. Experience shows that 
men are glad to survive the loss of liberty. They 
must be mad to continue to oppose that power, 
Avhich on trial has been found to be superior and 
irresistible. Myriads of persons we see are glad, 
on pecuniary encouragement, to go into the ar- 
my, where every democrat will insist there cannot 
be liberty, because there is restraint. 

It is self-evident, in spite of the groundless, and 
perhaps treacherous pretensions of faction, that 
our country is absolutely defenceless against Bona- 
parte, when master of the sea. The French 
troops have marched through countries having 
three or four times as many people as the United 
Slates, with the quietness of a procession. Does 
not Bonaparte confidently calculate upon the con- 
quest of Britain, if he can only reach the shore 
with his troops ? Yet Britain has twice our popu- 
lation, and in a narrow compass too ; and nearly 
one hundred times our military force. 

With so many proofs, after such decisive expe- 
rience of the resistless march of the French, is it 
not presumption, folly, madness, to suppose that 
we could be free if France had the British fleet r 
To our minds the proof is demonstration. 

We do not urge this fearful conclusion because 
we despise our countrj^men, or wish to see Amer- 
ica dishonored. Far, far from our hearts are such 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 347 

abominable wishes. Look, look, fellow-country- 
men, as we do, to your dear innocent children. 
Ask your hearts, if they can bear so racking a 
question, if a shallow confidence in our unarmed 
security against Bonaparte, in case Britain should 
fall, does not tend to devote them to the rage of 
a restless, unappeasable tyrant ? We tremble at 
the thought, that our own dear children will be in 
Bonaparte's conscription for St. Domingo, in case 
the Gallican policy of our government should be 
pursued till its natural tendencies are accom- 
plished. 

We would ask all sober citizens, whether or 
not, if the danger of an invasion be considered 
as really impending, we ought not to have an ar- 
my to meet it ? Would a raw army, raised when 
the foe is on the shores, be fit to oppose him ? 
Would you stake the life of our liberty upon the 
resistance that paper could make against iron ? 
No, every man Vvould say, if we are to fight an 
invading enemy, sixty thousand strong, in 1810 or 
1812, we have no time to lose in raising an army 
by enlistment^ stronger than that of the invaders, 
and training them to an equality of subordination, 
discipline, and confidence in themselves and their 
ofiicers. Such an army, with cavalry, artillery, 
engineers, &c. would be too expensive for our 
means, or for the temper of our citizens, who 
have been studiously taught to hold all taxes as 
grievances and wrongs. The thing, we grant, 



348 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

is impossible. To depend on a wiilitia not e?ilis- 
ted, nor disciplined, is madness. 

It follows then, demonstratively, that our single 
hope of security is in the triumphs of the British 
navy. While that rides mistress of the ocean, the 
French can no more pass it, to attack us, than they 
could ford the bottomless pit. 

Hitherto we have designedly avoided all party 
topics. We have gone upon the supposition that 
the democrats do not wish their children to be- 
come the slaves of Bonaparte. We take it for 
granted, that it is of more national importance to 
be free, than to carry coffee to Amsterdam. 

If then we have so great interests depending, 
we cannot but wonder that Mr. Jefferson should 
endanger them for the sake of minor interests, 
which are in comparison but as the small dust of 
the balance. He professes to aim all his political 
measures at what he calls " the destruction of the 
British tyranny of the seas,' and exults in the con- 
viction that his plans are adequate to their end. 

God forbid that they should be ! God, of his 
mercy forbid, that after having led our fore-fathers 
by the hand; and as it were, by his immediate 
power, planted a great nation in the wilderness, 
he should permit the passions or the errors of our 
chief to plunge us into ruin and slavery ! Shall 
this French magog be allowed to pluck our star 
fiovn its sphere, and quench its bright orb in the 
sea? 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, ,&C. 349 

It is well known that Mr. Jefferson is entirely 
convinced that Britain is now making her expiring 
efforts. He holds it to be impossible that she can 
resist Bonaparte tzoo years longer ; (that is to say, 
from the 18th day of December 1807, when Mr. 
Jefferson publicly, at his own table, made this 
declaration ; " that Britain would cease to be a na- 
tion in less than two years^) Then let him wear 
sackcloth. Let him gather a colony, and lead 
them to hide from a conqueror's pursuit in the 
trackless forests near the sources of the Missouri. 
Frost, hunger, and poverty will not gripe so hard 
as Bonaparte, 

But since he expects the speedy destruction 
of Britain, what motives has he to strain every 
nerve as he does to hasten it } He knows man- 
kind ; he knows Bonaparte too well to hope that 
the tyrant's hand will be the lighter for that merit. 
That bosom, so notoriously steeled against pity, 
will not melt to friendship. 

Among the infinite diversity of a madman's 
dreams, was there ever one so extravagant, as that 
a republic might safely trust its liberty to the sen- 
tirtienl of a master ? Every moon-beam at Wash- 
ington must have shot frenzy, if such a motive 
among politicians could have influenced action. 
If liberty should fall, as it undoubtedly xvill^ if 
France prevails, let us at least have the consola- 
tion to say, that our hands have not assisted in its 
assassination. 



350 V HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

Why do our public men wilfully blind them- 
selves, and regard no dangers but such as they 
apprehend from the hostility of party ? The 
earth on which we tread, holds the bones of the 
deceased patriots of the revolution. Will the 
sacred silence of the grave be broken ? Will the 
illustrious shades walk forth into public places, 
and audibly pronounce a warning to convince us 
that the independence for which they bled is in 
danger ? No, without a miracle, the exercise of 
our reason must convince us, that our indepen- 
dence is in danger from France; and if Britain 
falls by force, terror alone will bring us into sub- 
jection. 

We do not love nor respect our country less 
than those, who foolishly, and perhaps wickedly, 
boast of its invincible strength and prowess. As 
the destroyer of nations has enslaved Europe, and 
as only one nation, Britain, has hindered his com- 
ing here to conquer us, they have no ears to hear, 
they have no hearts to feel for our country, v\'ho 
wish to break down that obstacle, and let him in. 

This is not a party-effusion ; it proceeds from 
hearts ready to burst with anxiety on the prospect 
of the political insanity that is ready to join the 
foe. It is republican suicide, it is treachery to 
the people to make them an innocent sacrifice to 
the passions of our rulers. 

Let Mr. JetTerson avail himself of the power 
that his weight with his own party gives him, and 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 351 

stop the progress o( our fate. We do not ask him 
to go to war with France. Consult prudence, and 
renounce the affectation of that false honor, which 
has been of late so much upon our lips. He will 
find that the federalists love their country better 
than their party. Let there be peace, merely 
peace ; we say nothing of alliance with Britain ; 
and if our champion falls in the combat, let us 
not, when we perish, deplore the fatal folly of hav- 
ing contributed to hasten his and our own destruc- 
tion." 

So far the patriotic and eloquent P'isher Ames. 

It might perhaps be allowable just to notice 
one of the immediate evils which must unavoida- 
bly result to the United States from the destruc- 
tion of Britain ; I mean the instantaneous cutting 
off of all supply of British manufactures to this 
country. The ruin of Britain would be accompa- 
nied with the annihilation of her commerce and 
manufactures ; and the United States have not 
now, neither can they have for several years to 
come, a sufficient capital, nor a sufficiently reason- 
able rate of labor-wages to enable them to manu- 
facture many even of the prime necessaries of 
life ; such as vvoollen-clothing, a vast variety of ar- 
ticles in hardware, and many other commodities 
which might easily be enumerated. 

Where then could they get a supply of these 
necessary articles ? From the European conti- 
nent ? No, that is too much destroyed by the 



552 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

ravages of a long and bloody warfare, to be able 
for many years to come, to supply even itself with 
manufactured goods. Add to which, the conti- 
nent of Europe, and more particularly that part 
of it called France, never can become extensively 
employed in manufactures, because it has not a 
sufficient quantity of coal-mines at command. It 
surely can require no argument, to prove that a 
nation whose fuel grows above ground, can never 
push its manufactures to any great extent. 

The immediate result then of the destruction of 
Britain to the United States, would be the depri- 
ving a large body of the American people of ma- 
ny of the necessaries, and more of the convenien- 
cies of life. How much this would tend to breed 
discontent among our citizens, and effectually 
diminish our population, I need not now consider ^ 
as the whole subject of Amei^ican manufactures 
will be discussed at length in my view of the 
moral and political condition of the United States; 
of which, at least one-third portion, (including a 
consideration of the agriculture, trade, manufac- 
tures, general and state-governments of the Union) 
is already prepared for the press. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 353 



CHAPTER IV. 

But Britain is not yet fallen ; and a very slight 
and rapid glance over the positive and relative 
condition of continental Europe, will convince us 
that she is not about to fall, or even to bow her 
lofty head beneath the menaces or the violence, 
the craft or the courage, of her enemies. 

Russia^ " like a tall bully that lifts its head, and 
lies," appears to be much more formidable at a dis- 
tance, than when the enemy approaches near, and 
grapples with his strength. She possesses indeed 
an immense empire, extending over a superficies of 
territory, full, three millions of square miles ; bat 
her very great extent renders her population of forty 
millions comparatively feeble and intrffectual. Other 
things being equal, a country is more powerful than 
its neighbours, precisely in proportion to its having 
a numerous population crowded into a compact 
territory ; so that it can speedily and at all times, 
gather together its people in large masses for the 
purposes of offensive or of defensive operations. 

Accordingly Russia has never been able to call 
forth any large proportion of her population at one 
time, and to send numerous armies into the field tcf 
contend with her European enemies. 

Her soldiers, undoubtedly, possess that bodily 
strength, and that steady, desperate, persevering 
valour, which are all effectual in the hands of a skil- 

S z 



354> HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

ful general. But her officers are not sufficiently 
versed in military tactics on a large and a compre- 
hensive scale, to encounter the armies of Europe, 
led on by well-educated and experienced command- 
ers ; although she appeared to be enormously great 
and powerful in her conflicts with the rude and bar- 
barous Turks, Tartars and Persians. Whence her 
inability to cope with France, and her consequent 
entire defeat at the battle of Ausierlitz in 1805; 
and in the succeeding combats of Pultusk and of 
Gotzmolin, in the year 1807. 

Her maritime power is small, and is not likely to 
be increased by her tamely and foolishly quarrelling 
with Britain, at the haughty bidding of her imperial 
master Bonaparte. 

Her finances have long been in a most disastrous 
and disorderly condition ; nor has she taken pre- 
cisely the most correct method of relieving her em- 
barrassment in this respect by her present war with 
Britain. M. Ricard in his " TrailS General du 
Commerce^ tome troineme, p, 3Q — 62, published 
at Paris, in three volumes quarto. An. 7, de la Be- 
piiblique Frangaise^ tells us that the ordinary trade 
between Russia and England netts a balance of 
three millions sterling annually in favor of Russia; 
and that nearly the whole of these three millions 
used every year to find their way into France in the 
purchase of the finer French manufactures, knick- 
knacks, toys, and frippery. So that in this instance 
at least Bonaparte and his subjects gain nothing by 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 355 

making Russia quarrel with Britain, in pursuance of 
the Corsican*b scheme of anti-commercial policy. 

English capital first made the Russian pot-ash, 
and then paid for it : English capital bought the 
Russian hemp-seed, paid for ploughing the land, and 
then bought the hemp ; English merchants used to 
advance the capital many months before the pro- 
duce of Russia appeared at the market. This pro- 
cess is so well understood, that the merchants of the 
United States, while America had any trade, used to 
send a purchasing capital a year beforehand into 
Russia to get hemp and cordage. 

Indeed, all countries half settled, and not half civi- 
lized must ever be dependant upon countries, whose 
equitable administration of government incites and 
secures the steady progress of productive industry. 
Hence the present war of Russia against Britain is 
the absurd, pitiful effort of poverty against the very 
wealth, which alone can lighten the penury, by 
employing its labor, and opening a ready and con- 
stant market for its produce. 

Such egregious blunders in policy cannot fail of 
receiving, as they richly merit, the most signal 
chastisement. It is impossible for Russia not to 
suffer evils of very extensive magnitude, in conse- 
quence of her absurdly quarelling with Britain. 
The sale of her rude produce to Britain enabled her 
boors to pay their obrok^ or vassal-money to their 
lords ; and her nobles to attend the court of their 
sovereign. The great check to the efforts of Rus- 



356 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

sian agriculture occasioned by the sudden cessation 
of so large a demand for the rude produce of the soil 
is too obvious to require noticing minutely. 

But ignorance is the proper receptacle of French 
principles, and ofcourse Russia imbibes them greed- 
ily ; and cowering under the wing of Bonaparte's 
despotism (for Alexander is merely the tool of the 
Corsican) bends the whole of her unwieldy strength 
to distress the naval power of Britain, which is es- 
sentially necessary for the prosperity of Russia ; and 
to augment the territorial greatness of France, which 
has an invariable tendency to subvert the Muscovite 
throne. 

Add to all this, the very great want of political 
talents in the Russian government ; there is not a 
single counsellor round the Muscovite throne, that 
is entitled to the appellation of statesman. Indeed, 
Russia has all the corruption and despotism of 
France, without the energy of its talents and in- 
formation. 

Fiom the movements, military or political, of 
Russia, therefore, Europe has little to hope or fear. 
A rude, ignorant, barbarous people, oppressed by a 
■weak, corrupted, stupid government, can never dic- 
tate the law to other countries possessing any consi- 
derable force, but must receive it from them. 
Wience Russia will follow the cour.se, and shape 
her deijtiny according to the career, of the primary 
nations of the world. 

*' But Austria" say the whole host of democrats 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 357 

in the United States, " Austria is annihilated, for 
ever subjugated beneath the dominion of France — 
we sincerely rejoice," continue these zealous and 
enlightened patriots, " we sincerely rejoice that the 
Austrian empire is destroyed : not only because she 
dared to oppose France ; but because she was an 
original party to the treaty of Pilnitz ; because she 
is HOW, and long has been, an ally of Britain, by 
whose speedy destruction alone can the world find 
repose, and the United States in particular gain 
wealth, and power. Britam, the grand corrupter of 
the world, the common robber, the tyrant of the 
ocean, the dastardly plunderer of defenceless na- 
tions, the most cowardly of all people j Britain^ 
whose speedy and inevitable destruction is now laid 
open to the arms of the sagacious conqueror j of 
Napoleon, who has always treated these United 
States with the most T^evitci friendliness , and mag- 
nanimity,*^ &c. &c. 

This precious paragraph is copied from the lead- 
ing print under the auspices of the cabinet of 
Washington, in order to show how correctly the po- 
litical bearings and relations of Europe, and of the 
whole world, are appreciated by a very large body 
of politicians in the union. The question itself is of 
sufficient importance to demand the most serious 
consideration. 

To us, in these United States, so very far removed 
from the seat and centre of all intelligence, informa- 
tion respecting the actual condition of Europe 



358 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

comes in such scanty and uncertain streams, 
through the tardy and occasional channels of the 
British and French presses ; that, from the total im- 
possibility of acquiring that vast body of facts, which 
can illumine and guide the researches of the Diis 
meliorilms nati of the other hemisphere, we shall be 
obliged in the following inquiry into the positive 
and relative condition of continental Europe, to rest 
chiefly upon the application of general principles to 
the known and experienced course of human af- 
fairs. 

The Austrian soldier is steadily and systemati- 
cally brave ; he knows neither intimidation nor 
despondency ; he will not forsake the field of bat- 
tle until ordered by his general, and he meets 
death with the most perfect constancy and indif- 
ference. 

Nor are these excellent instruments of offensive 
and of defensive warfare thrown away as useless, 
for want of experienced and able officers. In the 
late battles of Elsinghen and Wagram, Bonaparte, 
aided by the military talents of his most accom- 
plished generals, little if at all inferior to himself 
in genius and skilful tactics, put forth his whole 
strength, and stretched the sinews of his utttiosfr 
resources, and in the first conflict, after long and 
obstinate fighting, was beaten \ and in the second, 
after a still more severe and bloody contest, gain- 
ed a doubtful victory. 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 359 

Now although every encomium is justly due to 
the determined intrepidity, and the comprehen- 
sive military genius of the illustrious commander 
in chief of the Austrian army ; yet the Archduke 
Charles must have been well seconded by the ex- 
traordinary talents of his Generals, as well as by 
the devoted heroism of his troops ; or he alone, sin- 
gle, unaided, could never have conducted the ope- 
rations of such immense armies in successful oppo- 
sition to Bonaparte and his still more numerous 
followers. 

A conclusive proof that Bonaparte has been 
very roughly handled in these terrible battles, 
and that the Austrian empire is yet unsubdued, is 
to be found in the armistice of a month granted 
after the deadly encountre at Wagram, in the tar- 
dy, protracted negociations for peace , and in the 
rumors strong and frequent, blown in upon us in 
this uUima Thule, by every breeze that wafts a ves- 
sel from Europe to these shores, of a speedy re^ 
newal of hostilities between the two contending 
powers. 

After the battles of Marengo, and of Aus»- 
terlitz, Bonaparte, immediately prescribed the 
terms of peace, and dictated the treaties of Lune- 
ville and of Presburgh, to the humiliated House 
of Austria. Why has he not prescribed the terms 
of peace, and dictated a treaty to the emperor 
Francis now, after the mt)re bloody and obstinate 
battles of Elsinghen and of Wagram ? Is he not 



360 HINTS ON THE NATIONAI 

equally desirous now of acquiring universal do- 
mination, as he was in the years 1800 and 1805 ? 
Yes ; but Austria must feel herself still able to 
cope Avith her insolent and perfidious foe, and is 
willing once again to dare him to the encountreof 
the bayonet and the sabre. 

Report says that the Archduke Charles has re- 
tired from the Austrian army, and that Prince 
John of Lichtenstein has succeeded him as com- 
mander in chief. The cause of the Archduke's 
resignation is unknown here ; but wherever he 
goes, he must carry with him the homage and 
veneration due to his transcendant military talents, 
and exalted heroism, from every honest and every 
feeling heart. 

His successor is reputed to possess a very extra- 
ordinary military genius, and to be idolized by the 
Austrian soldiery ; and as he is known to be the 
bosom friend of the Archduke Charles, it is to be 
inferred that no serious misunderstanding has ta- 
ken place between the emperor Francis and his 
brother. May the good providence of God prosper 
the cause of Austria, under whatsoever general 
she opposes the common enemy of mankind ; and 
preserve her empire from bowing its ancient head, 
white with the hoar of successive centuries, be- 
neath the iron yoke of an unprincipled, upstart 
usurper. 

Nevertheless, it must not be dissembled that the 
cabinet of Vienna has not of late years displayed 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 36l 

a political wisdom worthy of the attachment of its 
people, or the resources of its empire. The weak- 
ness of Austria has been confessedly only in her 
government. May her recent severe lessons of 
misfortune teach her to eradicate the pernicious 
errors of her administration. 

The natural resources of Austria are all suffi- 
cient, if well managed, to ensure her permanent 
rank among the primary nations of the world j 
and if her external commerce were more exten- 
sive, and her system of internal policy towards 
her own subjects more enlightened, she would be 
able to stand up alone, aufl single-handed against 
the whole military force of France, directed by the 
genius and activity of Bonaparte and his generals. 

Upon the authority of the late Mr. Fox, and 
the present Mr. Brougham, two statesmen to 
whose genius and political information every hom- 
age of respect is due, I shall state a very few of the 
lamentable errors of government into which the 
Austrian monarchy has fallen. 

"The extent and natural fertility of her domin- 
ions, particularly of Bohemia, of Gallicia, and 
above all of Hungary, open to a wise and energetic 
government, inexhaustible sources of national de- 
fence and national agrandizement. But these no- 
ble kingdoms lie almost in a state of nature, unre- 
claimed from the wilderness and waste. 

The long and melancholy catalogue of her po- 
litical blunders which have stopped the growth 

3 A 



36^2 HINTS (TN THE NATIONAL 

of her hereditary provinces, would'form a volume, 
by no means uninstructive to the political econo- 
mist, who wishes to contemplate the errors of 
statesmen ; or to the practical politician, who 
might be warned by the example of his prede- 
cessors. 

In some parts of the empire the peasantry 
are greatly oppressed by their landlords ; in oth- 
ers they pay too small rent, and consequently 
through their indolence the land is neglected. 
Thus in Austria and part of Styria, the feudal ser- 
vices were commuted for a fixed sum yearly, 
above thirty years ago ; it was reckoned too small 
a compensation then; and now it is almost a nom- 
inal rent. In Hungary, on the other hand, the 
abolition of villenage has been legally effected by 
the famous Urbarium of Maria Teresa; but the 
lords retain in practice, especially in the remoter 
parts, a most exorbitant power over their vassals. 

All over the Austrian monarchy, except in 
Hungary, the S37stem of military enrolment pres- 
ses very severely upon the people. Every per- 
son, not noble, or exempted by his office, is liable 
to serve ; if a person leaves the country and re- 
turns at any distance of time, he is stopped in his 
passage through it, and sent to the army, because 
he had missed his turn of service during his ab- 
sence. When Joseph the second wished to encour- 
age settlers in Poland from other parts of Europe, 
he thought he gave them a great exemption by 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 363 

promising the fathers of families and their eldest 
sons a freedom from military service. 

The Austrian government not only carries on, 
upon its own account, a great variety of extensive, 
(it is needless to add) ruinous speculations in trade 
and manufactures j but has also some of the most 
oppressive monopolies of useful or necessary ar- 
ticles. In the towns a license must be bought 
to sell almost every article of commerce ; and for 
entering a new line of business, a high price must 
be paid. Except in Styria and Gallicia, salt is 
every where a royal monopoly, and except in 
Hungary, tobacco is strictly subjected to the 
same oppressive restriction. 

The effect of these monopolies on the prosperi- 
ty of the state, and their trifling utility to the 
revenue, may be estimated from the price to which 
they raise the articles in question, and the amount 
of net income which they yield to the govern- 
ment. The fossil salt, which forms nine-tenths of 
the consumption in Hungary, and is yielded in 
such abundance, that in the neighborhood of the 
mines it costs but two pence a hundred weight to 
the government, it is sold in the market for nearly 
forty times as much, or about six shillings and 
six-pence. The yearly consumption of this arti- 
cle in Hungary exceeds a million of hundred 
weight J yet this oppressive monopoly yields the 
government no more than two hundred thousand 
pounds a year. 



364 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

The effects of the monopoly of tobacco are 
nearly similar ; but we may judge more accurate- 
ly of them by remarking, that in Hungary, where 
the restriction does not exist, the best tobacco is 
sold ten times cheaper than the vile tobaccos of 
Austria and Bohemia are in those provinces ; and 
that when the whole profit of the monopoly was 
farmed, it yielded only one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand pounds a year. 

Tobacco, on the Hungarian frontier, is not seiz- 
ed ; but the person attempting to bring it into 
Austria is fined above two hundred times the 
price of it ; and the search for tobacco is accord- 
ingly as strict as for diamonds at the mines of the 
East-Indies. Foreign tobacco may be imported 
for use on paying sixty per cent, duty, but not 
for sale. All the manufacture and sale, without 
exception, is carried on upon royal account. The 
degree in which Hungary is oppressed by these 
strange regulations may be estimated from this, 
that she only exports annually seventy thousand 
pounds worth of tobacco, all of which goes to the 
emperor's account. The Austrians use much 
more of that herb than the French, and yet the 
total importation of tobacco into France, before 
the revolution, used to exceed ten times that sum. 

Hungary indeed, the finest of all the provinces, 
and sufficient, if well managed, to render Austria 
the richest country iti Europe, is studiously op- 
pressed, because its free constitution prevents the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 365 

government from laying on arbitrary imposts, 
and monopolizing all its produce. 

In revenge, its tobacco is prevented from being 
exported, except on royal account, under the se- 
verest penalties. Its excellent wines are oppres- 
sed with duties, amounting almost to prohibitions, 
in order to encourage the vapid produce of the 
Austrian vineyards ; and those duties are exacted 
even in countries which no Austrian wine ever 
reached, as in Croatia. Even the grains which 
cannot bear the expense of carriage to Fiume, if 
brought round through the other provinces, are 
loaded with the heaviest duties, and the merchant 
annoyed with regulations still more vexatious. 

To conclude this melancholy picture of impo- 
litic conduct, the same jealousy of the people 
which delivered up the Tyrol to the enemy last 
war, still prevails with respect to the peasantry of 
Carinthia and Styria ; in spite of past experience, 
in spite even of the success which attended a just 
confidence in the people of the frontier towards 
Turkey, who since the earlier times, have been 
freed from vassalage, and embodied as a feudal 
militia. 

Add to these examples of the impolicy which 
has weakened Austria, the unfortunate confusion 
that prevails in her finances, partly from bad 
management of the revenue, partly from an exces- 
sive issue of paper, and the want of a bank be- 
yond the control of the government, but chiefly 



366 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

from the signal marks of bad faith, which have at 
different times, and even so late as the year 1805, 
been given to the public creditor. 

The discount of the paper, which formed the 
only currency of Austria, was during peace from 
twenty-eight to thirty-two per cent, and during 
war much greater. The credit of the govern- 
ment suffered extremely from the unfair treatment 
of the subscribers to the Franckfort loan, in Janu- 
ary, 1805." 

*' Austria, therefore, cannot possibly long main- 
tain her national independence, even if she should 
outlive her present bloody struggle with France, 
unless she enter immediately and heartily upon a 
systematic improvement of her domestic economy; 
a gradual, but thorough melioration of her politi- 
cal constitution ; the correction of those evils in 
her militaty system, which in the last two wars 
proved so fatal to the best interests of her empire s 
a change of conduct towards her frontier provinces, 
which the experience of late years has most em- 
phatically prescribed ; forwarding the progress 
of her rich dominions ; her numerous and various 
population in civilized industry and wealth ; and 
the confirmation and extension of her foreign al- 
liances." 

Nor should the main and efficient cause of the 
misfortunes of Austria be forgotten ; namely, the 
great corrupting influence which France exercised 
over the Aulic Council, and the officers of tlie Aus- 
trian army. For a melancholy illustration of 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 36? 

these infamous facts, see a book entitled " Les 
Nouveaux Interests de VEurope^' published at 
Leipsic, in the year 1799- I have only room for 
the following extract : 

" The emperor, (then of Germany, now of Aus- 
tria) has been blamed for signing the prelimina- 
ries of Leoben,on the 18th of April, 1798. This 
certainly appears to have been done precipitately ; 
but are those who blame him aware of the reasons 
which induced him to take that step ? The empe- 
ror had been informed by his brother the Arch' 
duke Charles, of the bad disposition of a great 
part of the officers of his army of Italy. He knew 
that both at Verona and Padua they affected to im- 
itate the French in their discourse, manners, 
and sentiments ; they only needed the tri-colored 
cockade to make the semblance complete. He was 
aware that they almost invariably ^d'ofm the most 
critical moment of an action ; whence, in spite of 
excellent generals, a well appointed staff, and the 
bravest troops, he was always obliged to retreat. 
He conceived that he was betrayed by these offi- 
cers ; for it is well known that Bonaparte, in an 
unguarded moment, declared that the Austrian 
army cost him more than his own." 



36S ' HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

CHAPTER V. 

But say that Austria is either subdued by force 
of arms, or cajoled into her destruction by a fraud- 
ulent peace, and lays herself down in bondage be- 
neath the iron hoofs of Gallic despotism ; yet 
Spain still undismayed opposes herself to the arms 
of Bonaparte. 

I know that it is the general opinion of the peo- 
ple of these United States, that the Spaniards will 
be speedily bent beneath the yoke of France. I 
shall extract a few sentences relating to this point, 
from the leading administration- print of the 
American government, in order to show the polit- 
ical affections of the democratic party in the 
Union, and how justly they arrogate to them- 
selves the merit of being the exclusive chsLxnipions 
of individual liberty and of national indepen- 
dence. 

" Citizens of the United States, free and inde- 
pendent, virtuous and enlightened republicans, be 
not deceived ; listen not to accounts from Eng- 
land, the grand arsenal in which lies are forged 
for universal diffusion over the whole earth, re- 
specting Spain : the cowardly Spaniards are bribed 
by that whore of Babylon, England, who has made 
all the nations of the world drunk with her abom- 
inations, her fasts, her blasphemies, her murders, 
her piracies, her impieties, her cowardly monopo- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 369 

lies; the ha.'!e,fj'aiidtdent Spaniards, I say, are bri- 
bed by En2:land to resist the laivful domination of 
the mighty Napoleon, whose whole life and actions 
have been directed to ameliorate the condition of 
suffering humanity, to break the fetters of feudal 
despotism, and to enable the natural energies of 
man once more to walk abroad,- and to render 
perfect in happiness the whole federal common- 
wealth of nations. 

" But the vagabond banditti, Spaniards, corrupt- 
ed by the gold and the false promises of Britain, 
resist in vain ; Napoleon by the chastening correc- 
tive of war will soon subdue the whole peninsula, 
and purify its every corner by the presence of his 
numerous and invincible legions. Then will he 
quickly turn upon the British Isles, and with one 
irresistible invasion annihilate their existence for 
ever, and scatter all their inhabitants as outcasts 
and vagabonds, in the room of the Jews, who have 
been too long persecuted, but whom Bonaparte is 
now collecting together from all quarters of the 
globe, in order to give them a place and a nation 
in Britain, which is now destined to immediate 
and richly merited vengeance and extermination. 

" Is there an /io/ze^-Memocrat — is there one real, 
genuine, pure republican, whose bosom does not 
beat high with exultation at the unparalleled sucr 
cesses of France, and the approaching inevitable 
destruction of the whole British nation. Is there," 
&c. &c. 

' 3 B 



Sf7() HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

This subject also is of sufficient importance to de- 
mand our serious attention. In the 13th volume 
of the Edinburgh Review p. 218, a most decided 
opinion is given that Spain will undoubtedly be sub- 
dued by Bonaparte. 

" In an earlier age of European history, says the 
gentleman who reviews the narrative of Don Pedro 
Cevallos, it might have been worth while to chroni- 
cle the steps of this most profligate usurpation ; and 
to note the shameful alternations of flattering pro- 
mises, and ambiguous menaces ^ of bare- faced and 
unblushing falsehood, and open ferocious violence, 
by which this bold, cunning, and unrelenting con- 
queror accomplished the first part of his ambitious 
project. 

Like the lion-hunters of old, he drew his victims 
on in tl^e course which he had prepared for them, by 
cajoling and by irritation; by soothing, their appe- 
tites and exciting their spirits, till at last, by trick, 
and by open violence, the royal beasts were driven 
into his toils, and placed completely at the disposal 
of their stern and artful pursuer. These things 
however are now familiar, and it is among the 
most melancholy and depressing of the reflections 
suggested by the tale before us, that it has revealed 
nothing which all its readers were not prepared to an- 
ticipate : and that atrocious as it is, it harmonizes 
exactly with the rest of the policy, by Vi^hich Bona- 
parte has for some time governed Europe, 

We turn gladly from this scene of imperial rob- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 371 

bery, royal weakness, and ministerial perfidy, to con- 
template, though with a fearful and unassured eye, 
the animating spectacle of that popular and patriot- 
ic struggle for independence, which the Spaniards 
have so unexpectedly and so gloriously displayed. 

In treating of the affairs of Spain in our last num- 
ber, we found ourselves obliged to express an opin- 
ion respecting the probable issue of the contest, far 
less sanguine than that with which the bulk of the 
people in Britain have been flattering themselves ; 
and it is painful now to add, that we can ae yet dis- 
cover no good reason for changing that opinion. 

The glorious efforts of the Spaniards have indeed 
in more instances than could be expected, obtained 
the success which their zeal and valor so amply mer- 
ited. The surrender of Dupont's army ; the gen- 
eral retreat of the enemy towards the Pyrenees, and 
the flight of Joseph from Madrid, have induced al- 
most every one to view the struggle as already deci- 
ded in favor of Spain, 

But let us reflect what the army is which the 
Spaniards have repulsed, in order to find out if 
they have as yet come to close quarters with Bo- 
naparte. That consummate statesman appears 
for once to have erred in his calculation, when he 
expected to take possession of Spain by the mere 
force of a treaty. Unaccustomed to meet with 
any resistance on the part of the people, he 
thought that his business was completed, as soon 
as he had gotten the royal family into his power. 



S72 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

He thought he had made sure of his purchase, 
when he had made them execute the deed of con- 
veyance, and only sent such a force as might be 
necessary to take quiet possession. 

When this force however arrived in Spain, it 
appeared that the whole work remained to be 
done ; and the army which was sent to keep, soon 
found that they had yet to fight for the crown. 
This is the only French force which has hitherto 
been engaged with the patriots. The whole force 
of Spain has been opposed, not to an army sent 
by France to conquer her, but to a detachment 
sent for a perfectly different purpose — to do the 
mere parade duty of the new monarchy. That 
this was a large detachment we do not deny, and 
still less would we dispute the claims of those who 
conquered it to their own immortal renown. We 
only contend that it was not the army with which 
France intended to subdue Spain. 

The Spaniards have not yet tried their strength 
against their formidable adversary. They have 
attacked him unawares, and beaten him by sur- 
prise. He has not even girded himself for the 
fight, and they have only overpowered him un- 
armed. He will rally, and renew the combat. 
The whole battle is still to begin. We have seen 
in reality nothing of it. Army after army will be 
poured through the Pyrenees, and ail Spain must 
become a field of blood. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 373 

The zeal of the Spaniards has now to withstand 
the skill of the French captains, and the discipline 
of their veteran soldiers. The councils of the dif- 
ferent kingdoms of which the Spanish monarchy 
is composed, are matched against the vigor and 
unity of a single, practised, absolute, remorseless 
man. The enthusiasm of the patriots has to con- 
tend against the regular, habitual, animal courage 
of professional soldiers; and the question is, which 
of these two feelings is likely to prevail in the 
long run ; to bear up against difficulties and pri- 
vations, to survive disasters, and to endure the 
inactivity of protracted operations ? 

Such is the contest which is now beginning in 
Spain J and such are the grounds of our melaa- 
choly forebodings, that it will lead to the subjuga- 
tion of the most gallant people in the world." 

It is with the most unfeigned diffidence, that, 
only furnished with the very scanty information 
respecting Europe, which tardily and uncertainly 
finds its way to this remote country, I venture to 
dissent from the opinion of the Edinburgh Review- 
ers, whose whole writings on the great subjects 
of national policy show, that they generally arrive 
at a correct and comprehensive result by a careful 
and accurate induction from a vast variety of par- 
ticular facts. 

Nevertheless, I shall beg the indulgence of the 
reader while I offer a few observations as to the 
probable issue of the present contest between 



374 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

France and Spain terminating ultimately in favor 
of the Spaniards. 

All the records of human history bear witness 
to the utter impossibility of subduing a zvhole, un- 
divided people, that sets itself in determined, des- 
perate resistance to the outrages of a foreign in- 
vading army. Many governments have fallen, 
and many governments may again perish, under 
the sword of a usurper ; but there is not one sin- 
gle instance in all the annals of mankind, of a 
whole numerous people or nation, fighting in de- 
fence of their wives, children, houses, liberty, and 
independence, being subjugated by a foreign foe. 

In vain did the Persian monarchs assail with 
their whole force the petty democracies of ancient 
Greece ; in vain was the whole power of the Aus- 
trian empire exerted to crush the little republics 
of Switzerland ; in vain did the Spanish monarchy, 
in the best days of its power and grandeur, at- 
tempt to reduce to obedience the stubborn states 
of Holland ; and alike ineffectual were the at- 
tempts of Spain to subdue the narrow territory 
and the scanty population of revolted Portugal. 

And what is more to our present purpose, the 
Spaniards themselves, in their rude, divided, bar- 
barous state, resisted the whole military force of 
Rome for more than half a century after Carthage 
fell ; and will not Spain now, in her present uni- 
ted, compacted state, with her whole people devo- 
ted to her, with her immense colonies pouring their 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 375 

boundless wealth into her lap, and with another 
and a greater Carthage, in Britain, to aid her with 
fleets, and armies, and ammunition, and provisions, 
and every thing which can contribute to her effec- 
tual defence and the annoyance of the enemy ; be 
able to cope with France, who possesses neither 
the steady desperate valor, nor the power, nor the 
resources, nor the full and undisputed dominion of 
the Roman republic in the zenith of its grandeur ? 

In the years 204 — 1 96', before Christ, the Roman 
armies, together with their generals Cneius and 
Publius Scipio, were cut to pieces by the Span- 
iards, to the north of the Iberus, on the frontiers 
of the Suessetani. In the years 195 — 192, Scipio 
Africanus, partly by valor, and partly by policy 
in dividing the unioji of the states of Spain, and 
gaining the Celtiberians over to the Roman stan- 
dard, succeeded in subduing the bold and ardent 
Lacetani, the inhabitants of the present province 
of Catalonia, after many bloody and obstinate 
conflicts. 

When the republic of Carthage had fallen be- 
neath the superior valor, and the more crafty poli- 
cy of Rome, the peninsula of Spain still dared, 
with its various discordant and barbarous tribes, 
to maintain an unequal contest against the whole, 
united, well-disciplined military force of the Ro- 
man government. It cannot be expected that I 
should enter minutely into the history of the con- 
test between Roman fraud and oppression on the 



376 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

one hand, and Spanish valor and magnanimity on 
the other. The seige of Numantia, however, in 
the years 142 — 7d A. C. a period of sixty-six years, 
deserves commemoration in order to show what 
desperate and determined valor can perform, even 
against the most numerous and best disciplined 
armies. Consult " The History of Spain," &c. in 
three volumes octavo, published in London, in 
1793, from which the following account is taken. 

" The city of Numantia stood near the source 
of the Duero, a little above the situation of the 
present city of Soria. Her youth sallied from the 
gates, and repulsed in open fight the disciplined 
valor of a numerous Roman army. On the ap- 
proach of Quintius Pompeius, at the head of thir- 
ty thousand veterans, they rejected with scorn the 
terms of submission offered to them, namely, that 
they should be deprived of their arms and fortifi- 
cations, and pay a heavy contribution in money. 

They therefore rushed out upon their far more 
numerous opponents, and, after an obstinate con- 
test, vanquished Pompey ihto accepting a treaty 
favorable to the Numantians ; which the Roman 
senate, with its accustomed fraud, and disregard of 
the most solemn obligations, refused to ratify ; and 
without restoring the hostages or refunding the 
money, which had been given on the faith of Pom- 
pey's oath, instantly ordered the seige of Numan- 
tia to be renewed. 

The Numantians beheld from their walls the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 377 

approach of the Roman army under Popilius Loe- 
nas, and disdaining the advantages of their ram- 
parts and situation, rushed forth to an open en- 
countre. Their valor vi^as successful ; and the 
remnant of the Roman army, that escaped the fury 
ofthe Spaniards, preserved during the remainder 
of the campaign an awful distance. 

The next spring the Roman eagles again ap- 
peared beneath the walls of Numantia, whose in- 
habitants again sallied forth against the enemy. 
Twenty thousand Romans were slaughtered by 
four thousand Numantians, and the consul Hos- 
tilius Mancinus, with his wretched fugitives from 
the field of battle, were surrounded by the victors 
on every side. They were preserved from famine- 
or the sword by a treaty, which was ratified by the 
most solemn oaths of Mancinus and his principal 
officers. 

This treaty was violated by the Roman senate 
with the same facility as that which had been sub- 
scribed by Pompey. Yet the senate affected to dis- 
guise its breach of faith under the appearance of 
rigid justice, and delivered Mancinus in chains to 
the Numantians, who with their wonted magna- 
nimity rejected the proffered victim, saying, " it is 
not the sacrifice of a private man which can atone 
for a breach of the public faith." 
. The Roman historians state that the Numan- 
tians capable of bearing arms did not exceed ten 
thousand. Yet Scipio, the second Africanus, who 

3 c 



378 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

was now appointed to lead the flower of the Ro- 
man legions against Numentia, although he was 
at the head of sixty thousand soldiers, dared not 
approach the walls of the city ; but suffered a 
whole year to elapse in restoring and confirming 
the discipline of his men, before he ventured to 
advance to the siege. 

His march was retarded by the attacks of the 
Nnmantians, whose impetuous valor, however, was 
obliged to yield to the steady courage and the 
superior numbers of the Romans. When up- 
braided by their countrymen for having fled be- 
fore those whom they had so often vanquished, 
they replied, " The Romans are indeed the same 
sheep, but they have got a different shepherd." 

The Numantians saw their fields laid waste by 
the invaders ; and their last retreat within the 
walls was followed by the close blockade of their 
devoted city. The walls of Numantia, which 
rose on a lofty hill, were three miles in circumfer- 
ence, and manned hyfour thousand brave and vig- 
orous citizens. The intolerant spirit of Rome 
demanded the surrender of their arms, their city> 
and their persons, to be disposed of at the discre- 
tion of the senate ; and the Numantians preferred 
an honorable death to a life of slavery. 

They sallied from their walls and defied the 
host of their besiegers to battle. But the pru- 
dence of Scipio restrained his soldiers within their 
lines, and the Numantians, as they returned, look- 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 379 

ed forward to a lingering fate by famine. One 
hope remained ;- — to rouse in their defence the 
martial tribes of Spain. Five aged warriors, each 
attended by his son, undertook to penetrate the 
works of the besiegers ; they pierced the Roman 
lines ; hewed down the guard that opposed them j 
and escaped before the Numidian horse could be 
assembled for pursuit. 

But of all the numerous and powerful states 
of Spain, only one city, Lutia, agreed to arm for 
the relief of Numantia. But before their youth 
could buckle on their armor, they were surpri- 
sed by the appearance of Scipio at their gates. 
The Roman general had been apprised of their 
design, and with a select detachment had pressed 
forward to surprise the city. Lutia was incapa- 
ble of resistance ; and four hundred of her noblest 
youths were the miserable victims of Scipio's im- 
placable cruelty. Their right hands were lopped 
from them ; and their mutilated appearance 
warned the neighboring disunited provinces of 
the danger of provoking the vengeance of Rome. 

The Numantians hourly saw their scanty stock 
of provisions diminish, and the number of their 
enemies increase by fresh reinforcements to the 
Roman camp. A deputation, issuing from their 
gates, solicited Scipio to receive their submission 
on honorable terms j or allow them to fall glori- 
ously in battle with his soldiers. Scipio replied, 
that they must surrender at discretion. 



380 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

The Numantians then, sword in hand, sallied 
forth on their oppressors, and gratified their des- 
pair by an extensive carnage of their enemies. 
Their strength was exhausted by the unequal con- 
flict, but their valor could not be subdued ; and 
they who were driven back into the city, set fire 
to their houses, and with their wives and families 
rushed on destruction. Fifty alone were with 
difficulty ravished from the flames to adorn the 
brutal triumph of the victor ; and Numantia 
alone, unaided, after defying the whole military 
power of Rome ioY fourteen years , was confoun- 
ded in a heap of ashes by the indignant and un- 
conquerable courage of her inhabitants. 

And if we examine the history of the present 
contest between Spain and France, so far as it 
has hitherto advanced, we shall find that the 
valor of the Spaniards now, is in no wise inferior 
to the courage displayed by their ancestors in op- 
posing the Romans. The determined intrepidity 
of the defenders of Saragossa, and of Gerona, 
against the attacks of the French, equals the 
prowess of those heroes who so often repulsed 
the Roman legions before the walls of Numantia. 

The Spanish generals also have distinguished 
themselves by the disj)Iay of military talents wor- 
thy of the devoted valor of their soldiers ; and the 
exploits of Palafox,of Blake, of Cuesta, of Vane- 
gas, and of Romana, in Arragon, in Catalonia, in 
Estremadura, in Leon, in Gallicia, and the Astu- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 381 

rias, have taught the experienced captains and 
the veteran troops of France to respect and to fear 
the impetuous courage of their enemy. 

Of the lofty spirit, the steady constancy, the 
comprehensive wisdom of the Spanish Junta, but 
little can be said. At the moment of Bonaparte's 
atrocious invasion of Spain, the whole country 
lay supine upon the verge of unanticipated des- 
truction ; and enveloped in that weak and defence- 
less state, which an entire century of feeble and 
corrupt government under the Bourbons had be- 
gun, continued, and consummated. 

The different provinces were unconnected by 
any common bond. The whole royal family, to- 
gether with the larger portion of the grandees 
and nobles of Spain were already the prisoners 
or the slaves of Bonaparte. In this moment of 
surprise, alarm, confusion, terror, ignorance, and 
anxiety, Murat, with a hundred thousand of Bona- 
parte's best troops, already spread over the coun- 
try, and in possesion of all the commanding for- 
tresses and passes, prepared to take possession of 
the Spanish monarchy for his master ; while Ju- 
not, with forty thousand French veterans, march- 
ed into Portugal to secure that kingdom also, as 
a lief of the Corsican dynasty. 

Yet under all these disadvantageous circumstan- 
ces, and in spite of the supineness of the Juntas, 
the enthusiastic valor of the Spanish people en- 
tirely vanquished the numerous, well-appointed. 



382 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

higiily-disciplined armies of France. Of all the 
hordes of French troops that liad followed Murat 
over the Pyrenees, by far the greater portion was 
slain by the Spaniards ; many were taken prison- 
ers, and the remaining few fled precipitately 
towards the French frontier. 

At length Bonaparte, sensible of the determined 
spirit of resistance which pervaded Spain, put the 
whole military force of his immense empire in ar- 
ray against the Spanish patriots. On this second 
invasion he carried with him, says his own official 
paper, the Moniteur, '^^ four hundred and eighty 
thousand soldiers." 

If he did, the question naturally arises, as to 
what he has done with this formidable force ? Why 
has he not subdued al) Spain long ere this ? A few 
misguided rebels and insurgents, as he calls them, 
could surely never oppose any successful resis- 
tance against half a million of the best troops in 
the world, commanded by the greatest generals in 
the universe, with Bonaparte at their head. 

But, say the democrats, Spain would have been 
conquered long since, if Bonaparte had not 
thought it more expedient first to annihilate the 
Austrian empire, and then return to crush the 
whole Spanish peninsula at one blow ; after which 
" in less than three months," (I quote their own 
words) " Britain will be subdued into a province 
of France." 

Now Bonaparte's Moniteur says, that he only 



BANKKUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 38S 

withdrew o?ie hundred thousand men from Spain, 
in order to annihilate the Austrian empire, in con- 
cert with his German armies, and his vassal princes 
of the Confederation of the Rhine. If then the 
Moniteur is to be believed, he left three hundred 
and eighty thousand French troops under the com- 
mand of some of his very best generals, namely, 
Augereau, Soult, Ney, Victor, and others, in Spain. 

And what have these great commanders at the 
head of their numerous and invincible legions 
done ? Accounts of so late a date as the beginning 
of September, 1809, have reached this country, 
and inform us, that Soult and all his army are 
driven out of Portugal ; that Ney and his troops 
have been compelled to evacuate Gallicia, and the 
Asturias ; that Augereau is daily losing ground 
in Arragon and Catalonia; that Victor and all his 
forces have been obliged to abandon Estremadura, 
and have been defeated at Talavera, on the bor- 
ders of the Alberche ; and that all the French 
soldiers now in Spain are reduced to one hundred 
and fifty thousand fighting men. 

If all this has been accomplished in fourteen 
months, reckoning from June 1808 to August 1809, 
by the Spaniards against sucii fearful odds, what 
result might we not expect in future when the dis- 
parity between the contending powers shall be so 
much lessened ? Spain, in the midst of all the 
weakness and confusion necessarily attendant up- 
on the formation of a provisional government, has 



384 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

successfully opposed an unarmed peasantry, and 
a rude, undisciplined militia, against almost in- 
credible numbers of French veteran troops, in the 
highest state of military discipline, and command- 
ed by the most able and experienced generals. 

The rugged natureof the Spanish territory also, 
full of mountains, narrow passes, deep defiles, and 
unfordable rivers not supplied with bridges, and 
above all, its being very scantily provisioned, 
partly from the great driness of the soil, and more 
especially from the very low and. miserable condi- 
tion of agriculture, throw serious and almost in- 
superable obstacles in the way of an invading 
army. 

And now, after more than twelve months con- 
sumed in contending with so formidable an ene- 
my, the Spaniards have had time and opportunity 
to learn the necessity and advantage of strict mili- 
tary discipline ; to organize their armies ; to wield 
the resources of the country with the greatest ef- 
fect for their own defence, and the annoyance of 
their enemy. 

And accordingly Spain has now numerous and 
well-appointed regular armies on foot, under some 
very distinguished generals, as Blake, Romana^ 
Cuesta, and Vanegas; and a conclusive proof that 
the state of discipline among the Spanish troops is 
highly improved, was shewn in Vanegas lately re- 
pulsing the attacks of a superior French force un- 
der Victor, for two successive days of hard and 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 385 

bloody fighting, and then falling back to the Sierra 
Morena, with his troops in such good order that 
Victor did not venture to molest him in his retreat. 

More than two hundred thousand Frenchmen 
have laid their bones in Spain since the beginning 
of the conflict between the two nations ; and the 
Spaniards are far better able now to contend with 
their enemy than ever they were, on account of 
the present more efficient organization of the re- 
sources of the whole Spanish monarchy, to direct 
their population, their valor, their wealth and their 
talents in one stream of decided violence and op- 
position against France ; who with all her gascon- 
ading about " the inexhaustible number of her 
people that burn with ardor to cover themselves 
with glory on the other side of the Pyrenees," ca?i- 
not afford to lose another half million of men in 
arms, in contending for the possession of the pe- 
ninsula: the cW2^cn/?i'zb7z system having (as we shall 
hereafter prove) very materially diminished the 
effective population, not only of France, but also 
of Holland and Italy. 

It indeed appears to be a hopeless attempt for 
Bonaparte to subdue Spain ; over-run it with his 
armies doubtless he may; but to subjugate the 
Spaniards is quite a distinct, and a much more dif- 
ficult affair. The Spanish mode of warfare too, is 
peculiarly calculated to wear out and destroy the 
invaders, and ultimately to save their own country. 
They do not stake the whole of their fortunes up- 

3 D 



386 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

on the single cast of a decisive battle with a nu- 
merous -avmy opposed to the veteran troops of 
France ; but cut otF every individual that straggles 
from the enemy's camp ; so that the French in 
fact will never be masters of a larger portion of 
the country than the immediate spots of ground 
which their armies occupy. 

Bonaparte himself seems to be aware of the im- 
probability, not to say impossibility, of bending 
Spain in submission to his yoke ; otherwise he must 
be an idiot to /«?/ zvaste and desolate a country 
which he expects to govern, and from whose re- 
sources of industrj^ population, and fruits of the 
soil alone, he can derive any accession of power 
and strength. The Requisition of a wilderness, 
without inhabitants, and without produce, will not 
carry him one step the nearer to the accomplish- 
ment of his great objects, the subjugation of Bri- 
tain, and thence, in course, of the whole world ; 
but he will be so much less able to effect this pur^ 
pose by all the blood and treasure which he ex- 
pends in exterminating the Spaniards, and redu- 
cing their country to a desert. 

Spain is already so devastated by the French, that 
not even refreshments can be found for a traveller 
within a hundred miles of Madrid, and Bonaparte's 
army itself subsists entirely on provisions and for- 
age brought all the way from France. In all the 
Spanish provinces which the French have over- 
run, they have destroyed every species of animal 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 587 

and vegetable food that they themselves could not 
consume. On quitting a country, after robbing 
the houses and cottages, they uniformly set fire to 
the wheat fields, olive groves, and vines; and all 
the flocks of Merino sheep, on which they can 
seize, they either kill or send out of the kingdom. 
AVhence it would appear that Bonaparte, actuated 
by the most fiend-like disposition, is determined at 
least to reduce the peninsula to a mere barren 
waste, if he cannot conquer it, and also take pos- 
session of the invaluable and boundless colonies 
of Spain. 

Are we not therefore justified in concluding that 
if the Spaniards be true to themselves, and heartily 
united in their efforts against the common enemy, 
they will ultimately defeat all the attempts of the 
Corsican tyrant to enslave them ; and be enabled 
to re-assert their national independence and gran- 
deur? 

Besides, nations, like individuals, become great 
and powerful in proportion as they are exercised 
by trials and difliculties. Adversity, as some 
French writer observes, is a crucible in which 
powerful minds are refined and strengthened ; but 
in which the spirit of ordinary characters is evapo- 
rated, and merely a caput mortuurn is left behind. 

Now occasional war is to a nation possessing 
considerable resources in itself, what adversity is 
to a valiant and v.iyielding individual. It calls 
forth and presses into action, all their means and 



388 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

energies ; it makes the slothful active ; the ignorant 
wise J the timid brave ; and develops all that ex- 
alted genius and spirited enterprise which are too 
apt to lie dormant in the time of peace. 

Contrast the inefficiency and want of all influence 
among the other nations of that over-grown empire 
of China, whose perpetuity of pacific policy renders 
a population of three hundred millions of human be- 
ings feebler than children in all the pursuits of intel- 
lect and of active courage, with the power and ener- 
gy of ancient Rome, whose chief occupation was 
war. 

Compare the power of France now in 1809, after 
a lapse of twenty years, spent in carrying on and in 
preparing for the most bloody and wide-wasting 
wars, with its power in the year 1789, under the 
sleepy government of the Bourbons. And Britain 
is at this moment, positively and relatively, far more 
powerful, in the spirit and enterprise of her people, 
and in the extent and permanency of her national 
resources, than she was in the year 1793, when she 
first entered upon the conflict with the revolutionary 
France. 

Spain has been enfeebled by the long continuance 
of a government badly administered, and of bon- 
dage to the views and politics of France. She re- 
quires time, and difficulty, and suffering, to call 
forth and to mature that energy and loftiness of char- 
acter which will enable her to re-assume her an- 
cient power and strength. A long and a terrible 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 389 

contest, in which much evil must be inflicted and 
suffered, on her own soil, with an enemy so powerful, 
so implacable, so perfidious, as France, will give lier 
an opportunity of calling into action her great poli- 
tical and military talents; of training and disciplin- 
ing avast body of effective soldiers; of diffusing 
intelligence over the great mass of her people, hi- 
therto shrouded in the deepest midnight of igno- 
rance and superstition; of restraining the undue 
and exorbitant power of the crown ; of restoring the 
nobility to their just influence in the community; 
of giving to the people a proper portion of political 
consequence, and a legitimate share of authority in 
electing their own representatives. If the contest 
with France be prolonged for some years, Spain 
might probably become one of the most powerful 
nations in the world ; in consequence of being obli- 
ged by the very necessity of her condition to use her 
internal resources of agriculture, her vast maritime 
capacities, and the boundless wealth of her colonies, 
in the promotion of her own national aggrandize- 
ment, and the prosperity of her people. 

It might appear presumptuous in one who must 
necessarily from his remote situation be entirely un- 
acquainted with the actual relation now subsisting 
between Britain and Spain, to offer an opinion in 
direct contradiction to the steps which the British 
Government is taking in regard to the present con- 
test between the Spaniards and French ; yet it ap- 
pears to me not quite consistent with sound policy 
to send an army from England into the peninsula. 



d90 HINTS ON THE NATIONAt 

For, in the first place, Spain is a very badly pro- 
visioned country, and British soldiers sent there 
must suffer more from famine than from the enemy. 

Sec ondly, people who speak different languages, 
never can cordially agree with each other. It is re- 
marked by M. Talleyrand in his " Memoir concern- 
ing the commercial relations of the United States with 
England," that an insurmountable barrier is raised 
up between people of a different language, who 
cannot utter a word without recollecting that they 
do not belong to the same country 5 betwixt w horn 
every transmission of thought is an irksome labor, 
and not an enjoyment ; who never come to under- 
stand each other thoroughly; and with whom the 
result of conversation, after the fatigue of unavailing 
efforts, is to find themselves mutually ridiculous." 

Thirdly, and above all, the two nations professing 
a different religion is the most insuperable obstacle 
to their joint and cordial co-operation. The Span- 
iards and Portuguese are perhaps the most bigoted 
of all people on earth to the most intolerant of all 
superstitions ; and would therefore have no objection 
to see all the British hei-etics in their country des- 
troyed by sword and famine. It is a remarkable 
fact, that after the great earthquake at Lisbon, in 
the year 1759, the Portuguese received the bounti- 
ful supply of all necessaries and comforts, which 
were sent to them by the munificence of the British 
Parliament and the private subscriptions of the Bri- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 391 

tish people, and immediately turned round, and 
cursed their preservers as heretics. 

Accordingly, as far as facts have come to our 
knowledge, the Spaniards never have willingly and 
heartily co- operated with the British armies that 
have gone into the peninsula, to fight for them. 
Witness Sir John Moore's last letter in which he 
complains bitterly of the coldness and neglect of the 
Spaniards, in not furnishing him with provisions, 
and never joining him with their troops, but leaving 
him with only five and twenty thousand Britons to 
fight before the walls of Corunna with seventy-thou- 
sand Frenchmen, over whom indeed he obtained a 
signal victory. 

Witness, also, how twenty-thousand of the British 
were suffered to contend alone at Talavera, with 
fifty thousand Frenchmen under Victor, whom how. 
ever they compelled to retreat across the Alberche ; 
but both Vanegas and Cuesta paid no regard to the 
orders or the situation of Sir Arthur Wellesley, whose 
army was suffered to he four days without any food. 

Would it not therefore be more advisable to let 
the Spaniards contend alone in battle with the French 
on their own soil, and the British employ their ar- 
mies and fleets in perpetually harassing the enemy's 
coasts, and compelling them to consume their troops 
in marching and rounter-marching j and to capture 
the islands of the Grecian Archipelago, of the Ragu- 
san republic, and every oMier island, that might 
serve as a depot of troops and ammunition, ready to 
act offensively at a moment's warning ? 



392 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

In the mean time every assistance might and 
ought to be given to the Spaniards in the articles of 
ammunition, clothing, provisions, or whatever may 
be necessary, in their present perilous condition. 

The small extent and scanty population of Portu- 
gal must determine the fate of that kingdom accor- 
ding to the destiny of Spain j as it would be impos- 
sible for the British to defend that little nook of land, 
if all the rest of the peninsula were in the hands of 
the French. For this assertion I have the authority 
of the late Sir John Moore, who in a letter to Lord 
Castlereagh, dated Salamanca, 25th Nov. 1808, says, 
" The frontier of Portugal is not defensible against 
a superior force. It is an open frontier, all equally 
rugged, but all equally to be penetrated. If the 
French succeed in Spain, it will be vain to attempt to 
resist them in Portugal, The Portuguese are with- 
out a military force ; and from the experience of 
their conduct under Sir Arthur Wellesley, no depen 
dance is to be placed on any aid ihey can give. The 
British must in that event immediately take steps to 
evacuate that country. Lisbon is the only port, and 
therefore the only place whence the army with its 
stores can embark. 

Elvas, and Almeida are the only fortresses on the 
frontier. The first is, I am told, a respectable work, 
Almeida is defective : and could not hold out bevond 
ten days agahist a regular attack. I have ordered 
a depot of provisions for a short consumption to be 
formed there, in case the army should be obliged to 
fall back. Perhaps the same should be done at El- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &€. 39S 

vas. In this ca^e we might check the progress of 
the enemy, whilst the stores were embarking, and 
arrangements were made for taking off the army. 
Beyond this the defence of Lisbon or of Portugal 
should not be thought of" 

If the Spaniards were left to fight their own bat- 
tles, Bonaparte could not very easily conquer a 
country so rugged and moutainous, so full of defiles, 
and dangerous passes, and so resolutely defended by 
its hardy and desperate inhabitants. And if he 
should nominally subdue it, it v\ould be very difficult 
in a region so badly provisioned, to maintain an ar- 
my sufficiently numerous to keep do\A n tiie insurgent 
spirit of a people to whom France and Frenchmen 
are objects of the most deadly hatred. 

For a succinct and interesting account of the des- 
picable fraud and murderous violence, bv which Bo- 
naparte conducted his plans for the usurpation of 
Spain, consult the " Manifesto of the Spanish Na- 
tion to Europe, dated at the royal palace of Alca- 
zar, Seville, January 1st. 1808." 

If Spain should ultimately succeed in baffling the 
attempts of the usurper, the benefits resulting to 
herself, to Europe, and to the world would be incal- 
culable. It would permanently weaken the over- 
grown power of France; would erect the Spaniards 
into a great and prosperous people; would give to 
Britain a main ascendency in the councils of Eu- 
rope ; would augment the aggregate of productive 

industry and commercial enterprise throughout the 
whole world. 

3e 



394 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

The cause of civil liberty also would be most ma- 
terially promoted, since it is impossible for the Span- 
ish people, if they succeed in their present glorious 
efforts, tamely to submit as heretofore to the feeVjle, 
corrupted, despotic government of a king that ran 
away from them into the arms of Bonaparte, of the 
•whole herd of courtiers and grandees who have 
basely joined the usurper's standard. 

In all probability the absolute power of the crown 
would be restrained by the influence of popular re- 
presentation, and the Cortes restored to those an- 
cient privileges which prevailed in the better times 
of the Peninsula; before the solid principles of liber- 
ty, originally interwoven in the constitution of 
Spain, and assisted by the spirit of the people, were 
corrupted and over-come by the vast influence of the 
^Executive, which at length swept away ail the natu- 
ral and civil rights of the Spaniards. 

But say that Spain is finally conquered; does it 
therefore follow that the whole world is necessarily 
laid low at the tyrant's feet ? — A conclusive answer 
to this question may be found in the 13th vol. of the 
Edinburgh Review, p. 225. 

" It is manifest that the force of the example of 
Spain must reach over the other states of the Euro- 
pean continent. Admitting that no farther succes- 
ses should crown the Sj anish arms, and that Bona- 
parte should, by overwhelming armies, beat down all 
opposition to his detestable projects; he has lost 
much, and must lose more before the struggle be at 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, kc. 303 

an end. He has learned, and France has been 
made to recollect, a lesson of which she had of late 
years lost sight ; namely, the powers of popular en- 
thusiasim when roused by injustice and oppression. 

It is n )W to be apprehended that similar acts of 
oppression wdl be met with somewhat of the same re- 
si>>tance wherever they are attempted. There may 
BOW be other enemies to beat besides drill sergeants 
and imperial guards, before armies can march over 
the countries of unufFending allies. The feeling of 
power has been communicated to the people in every 
part of Europe ; and any such shameless aggressions 
as those which first roused up this feeling in Spain, 
will in all likelihood, give rise to revolutionary move- 
ments elsewhere. 

It can scarcely be expected that while things re- 
main quiet the Germans w.ll change their govern- 
ment^ but it is no small improvement of their con- 
diti^m that the enemy should have reason to dread 
an intestine revolution, the most formidable antago- 
nist with which he has ever met, as often as he at- 
tempts to shake by any extraordinary efforts of usur- 
pation the existing order of things. 

Nor will the Spaniards themselves fail to reap the 
fru ts of their valor and patriotism, however sorely 
they may be discomfited in their present struggle. 
That Bonaparte will ultimately suc< eed we appre- 
hend is hii^hly probable; that he will succeed with- 
out great efforts and losses is absolutely impossible ; 
and no one caa be frantic enough to suppose,, thafc 



396 - HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

the utmost success of his arms can subdue the people 
of Spain into a nation of willing and peaceful slaves. 

This he knows as well as we do, and will nut only 
offer them good terms, after the tide of fortune has 
begun to turn in his favor, but will finally grant 
them such a capitulation as their gallant resistance 
at once deserves, and renders it absolutely necessary 
for the conqueror to allow. He will rule Spain with 
a very light rod, if ever he rules her at all ; because 
he knows that there is no other chance of ruling her 
long. We ascribe here nothing to his virtue ; we 
only give him credit for some of that prudence, 
which never forsook him before the march into 
Spain ; and of which there is too much reason to 
dread, he has long ere now regained possession." 

To this last position I am inclined to demur, and 
to doubt the probability of Bonaparte's ever ruling 
the Spaniards lightly ; because the whole of his con- 
duct hitherto, and all the habitual tendencies of his 
jealous and remorseless heart, have been uniformly 
marked by the most unsparing, inflexible cruelty to 
all those over whom he has exercised dominion. 
Whence he will be induced rather to aim at the en- 
tire prostration of Spain, by draining her whole ef- 
fective strength off in the conscription of all her men 
capable of bearing arms, than to incur the hazard of 
a high-spirited, fully peopled nation seizing the first 
opportunity of throwing off his yoke. 

But another important question arises as to what 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITxVIN, &C» 397 

efiect the subjugation of Spain by Bonaparte will 
have on Britain ? 

In order to secure the spring-elections of 1 809, 
in favor of democracy, our democrats issued hand- 
bills in all the towns and villages of the United 
States, announcing that Spain was entirely conquer- 
ed, all the British armies in the peninsula annihilated 
by Bonaparte, and Britain herself on the point of 
being reduced under the yoke of France ; and /here- 
fo^-e all honest republicans should immediately go to 
the poles and vote for Mr. Jefferson, and his party. 

It is not my business ?iozv to notice how indus- 
triously the whole body of democrats in the Uni- 
ted States seize every opportunity of identifying 
themselves and their cause with the interests and 
policy of France ; my only design at present is 
to inquire by what means Britain will be rendered. 
less able to contend with France, in consequence 
of the subjugation of Spain by Bonaparte, than 
she is at this moment. 

Before this nefarious attempt was made, Bona- 
parte had at his entire command all the resour- 
ces of the Spanish nation ; whose blood and trea- 
sure, whose fleet and armies, he employed with 
the utmost prodigality in the prosecution of his 
plans for the destruction of Britain. Say then 
that he should ultimately conquer Old Spain, will 
he not then be weaker and less able to carry into 
effect his deadly designs against the British ; by 
all the men whom he shall lose, and all the pro- 



398 NIHTS ON THE NATIONAL 

perty which he shall dissipate in the contest ; by 
the determined hatred, the reluctant, constrained 
submission of the gallant Spaniards; and the con- 
sequent necessity of always maintaining large bo- 
dies of French troops in the Peninsula, for the 
sole purpose of keeping his new subjects quiet ? 

Add to all this, how is he to obtain possession 
of the Spanish American colonies ? Will he con- 
quer them also by the mere terror of his threats : 
or win upon their aifection by his virtue and hu- 
manity so signally displayed in his conduct to- 
wards their brethren in Old Spain ? He cannot 
possibly murder every Spanish patriot that oppo- 
ses him ; and if it be seen that Old Spain must 
finally yield awhile to his overwhelming force, 
the political and military chiefs, with their fami- 
lies, their property, their talent, their valor, and 
their influence, together with a formidable Span- 
ish fleet, will transport themselves to the Ameri- 
can colonies, which are already prepared to re- 
ceive them, by their own loyalty, and patriotism 
in the revolutionary cause, and by the exertions 
of those governors whom the Central Junta has 
sojudiciously sent out to superintend the aff'airs 
of the colonial provinces. 

Thus an immense independent empire will be 
reared in the new world, which, while the British 
navy maintains the sovereignty of the seas, may 
bid defiance to Bonaparte, and all his hordes. 
And if he cannot inslave these Spanish colonies. 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 399 

will not their political and commercial alliance 
with Britain render her more able to defeat his 
schemes of universal domination, and to protect 
the world from his violence and fraud ; instead of 
bringing her nearer to the point of subjugation 
by his arms. 

If Bonaparte, with Spain and her colonies under 
his own entire control, could make no impression 
on Britain, by what miraculous process is he to 
conquer her when he shall have drained the vita\ 
strength of France in reducing the Peninsula to 
an unwilling obedience, and the Spanish colonies 
shall have become a vast independent empire ? 

Upon the great and very important question 
relating to the emancipation of Spanish America, 
a flood of light is poured out in the 13th volume 
of the "Edinburgh Review," p. 277, 311. The 
Reviewer discloses a vast body of interesting facts, 
respecting this subject, that could not be derived 
from any common source of information ; that 
could indeed have been obtained only by free and 
liberal access to Lord Grenviile, and Mr. Wynd- 
ham, or some other leading statesman, who filled 
conspicuous offices in Mr. Pitt's administration 
during the first French revolutionary war ; and 
to whom alone, many of the transactions, now 
revealed, could have been imparted, in conse- 
quence of their political relations and bearings. 

" The curious and interesting address, in which 
the inhabitants of South America, are called upon 



400 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

by every consideration interesting to man, to take 
the management of their own affairs into their own 
hanHs, and to establish a just and beneficent gov- 
ernment, which may at once ensure their own 
happiness, and open a liberal intercourse of bene- 
fits with the rest of the world, was written by a 
Jesuit, a native of Arequipa in the province of 
Peru. 

This extraordinary ecclesiastic, who displays a 
share of knowledge, of thought, and of liberality, 
worthy of the most enlightened countries, died in 
London in the month of February 1798, and left 
the present tract, in manuscript, together with 
several other papers, in the hands of the Honor- 
able Rufus King, at that time Minister in Britain 
from the United States. It was afterwards print- 
ed by means of General Miranda, for the purpose 
of being distributed among his countrymen. 

The brilliant prospects which seem to be open- 
ing for man in the new world, and the cloud which 
still thickens over the fortunes of the old, offer, at 
the present hour, a subject of contemplation to 
the thinking part of the British people, than 
which, excepting the great question of slavery or 
freedom, one more interesting can scarcely be 
imagined. 

After a tremendous struggle, to which the world 
has seen no parallel, the power of the despot of 
France now^ extends uncontrolled over almost eve- 
ry part of the continent of Europe. The hopes 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 401 

of the instability of that power, which so long con- 
tinued to flatter the multitude, vvlio always draw 
their conclusions, not from reason, but from pres- 
ent feeling and inclination, have given way to the 
alarm which a series of tremendous success has 
irresistibly engendered; and perhaps Britain is on 
the eve of being placed in the critical situation of 
near neighbor to a power, which combines against 
her all the resources of Europe, and cuts her off 
from an important branch of commercial inter- 
course. 

To the period, too, which may elapse before the 
affairs of Europe assume a condition more favor- 
able to human nature, the foresight of man can 
assign no definite boundary. In this new and por- 
tentous condition of Europe, Britain is called up- 
on to look more widely around her, and to inquire 
if in the rest of the world barriers can be found to 
resist the pressure of the torrent, and resources 
to supply those, of which the channel is now clo- 
sed against her ? 

In taking this important survey, every eye per- 
haps will ultimately rest upon South-America. A 
country far surpassing the whole of Europe in ex- 
tent, and still more in natural fertility, which has 
been hitherto unfortunately excluded from the be- 
neficent intercourse of nations, is, after a few pru- 
dent steps on the part of Britain, ready to open to 
her the immense resources of her territory j of a 
population at present great, and likely to increase 

3 F 



402 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

with most extraordinary celerity, and of a posi- 
tion unparalleled on the face of the globe for the 
astonishingcombination of commercial advantages 
which it unites. 

From the maturity for some beneficent change, 
which circumstances and events have for a 
series of years been working in those magnifi- 
cent regions, and from the mighty effects which 
they are capable of yielding for the consolation 
of afflicted humanity ; it seems as if that Provi- 
dence, which is continually bringing good out 
of evil, were about to open a career of happiness 
in the New World, at the very moment, when by 
the mysterious and inscrutable laws of its admin- 
istration, it appears to have decreed a long period 
of injustice and calamity in the Old. 

For the mighty benefits to be expected from a 
just and wise arrangement of the affairs of Span- 
ish America, we are not left to the results of spec- 
ulation, clear and unambiguous as they are, we 
can appeal to experience and to fact. We have 
the grand experiment of North America before 
us, which the inhabitants of the South are so am- 
bitious to imitate. The States of North America 
were once British colonies, and had always been 
beneficently administered, until the occurrence 
of that foolish, fatal blunder about taxing an un- 
represented people 5 yet has their independence 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 403 

been far more profitable to Britain than their sub- 
jection. 

What is the result with regard to commerce a- 
lone ? The very extraordinaryfact that for several 
years past, before Mr. Jefferson put into practice 
his grand experiment of annihilating all the trade 
of the Union, Britain exported more goods of her 
own growth and manufacture to the United 
States of America than to the whole of Europe 
taken together. 

If such be the benefits resulting from the na- 
tional prosperity of the United States, how many 
times greater will be the advantages which must 
necessarily flow from the prosperity of South 
America? How many times more extensive is 
the country which the Spanish Americans pos- 
sess ? That country, from enjoying a much 
greater diversity of climate, compared with Eu- 
rope, than North America, is much more richly 
provided with those commodities for which Eu- 
rope presents the most eager demand. 

Of the soil of South America a great part is 
much more favorable to cultivation, much more 
fruitful, and cleared by nations who had made 
some progress in civilization. Of all the coun- 
tries in the world. South America possesses the 
most important advantages in respect to internal 
navigation ; being intersected in all directions by 
mighty rivers, which will bear at little cost the 
produce of her extensive provinces to the ocean. 



404 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

If the populatiou of the United States, amount- 
ing to six millions of souls, afford so extraordi- 
nary a demand for British commodities, what may 
no* the population of South America, extending 
already to no less than sixteen millions, be expec- 
ted to aflbrd ? It is no doubt true, that the 
moral and intellectual habits of the people of 
South America are not so favorable to improve- 
ment as were those of the North American pop- 
ulation. Their industry has been cramped ; their 
minds have been held in ignorance by a bad 
government; hence they are indolent and super- 
stitious. 

But remove the cause, and the effects will 
cease to follow. So sweet are the fruits of labor, 
wherever the laborer enjoys them unimpaired, that 
the motives to it are irresistible ; and his activity 
may be counted upon with the certainty of a law 
of nature. The deduction, therefore, is so very 
small which on this score it will be requisite to 
make, that a very subordinate proportion of the 
superior advantages in soil and climate, which 
the South American enjoys, will suffice to com- 
pensate the better habits with which the inhabi- 
tant of the United States commenced his career. 

In respect to wants, the two countries resem- 
ble each other. From the immense extent of un- 
cultivated soil which it will require many ages to 
occupy, the whole bent of the population will be 
turned to agriculture ; and it will be their inter- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 405 

est and their desire to draw almost the whole of 
the manufactured goods, which their riches will 
enable them to consume, from other countries. 

The country to which the greater part of this 
prodigious demand will come, is unquestionably 
Britain. So far beyond all other countries, in 
respect to manufacturing advantages, does she 
stand, that were the circumstances of Europe 
much more likely to encourage industry than un- 
happily they are, Britain could meet with no 
rival ; and as she supplies North, so could she 
supply South America, on terms which would in- 
fallibly draw to her the greater part of the custom 
of that immense continent. 

With this magnificent source of industry and 
wealth opened to Britain, the channels which Bo- 
naparte can shut against her scarcely deserve to be 
named ; since even that of the United States sur- 
passes them all. With South America then, under 
a free and beneficent government, though Britain 
might weep for the calamities heaped upon her 
brethren of Europe by an insatiable despot, who 
with the words liberty and good of mankind on his 
lips, would rivet his chains on the whole human 
race, and expend all their blood and toil for his 
own momentary pleasure or caprice ; yet she 
might laugh the destroyer to scorn, and enjoy a 
v^^idely-extended, permanent prosperity, which the 
utmost efforts of his power and rage could never 
disturb. 



406 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

In enumerating the commercial advantages 
which would assuredly spring from the emancipa- 
tion of South America, the greatest benefit has not 
yet been noticed ; the mightiest event, perhaps, 
in favor of the peaceful intercourse of nations, 
which the physical circumstances of the globe 
present to the enterprise of man ; namely, the 
formation of a navigable passage across the isth- 
mus of Panama; the junction of the Atlantic and 
Pacific oceans. 

It is remarkable that this magnificent underta- 
king, pregnant with consequences so important to 
mankind, is not only practicable, but easy. The 
river Chagre, which falls into the Atlantic at the 
town of Chagre, about eighteen leagues to the 
westward of Porto-Bello, is navigable as far as 
Cruzes, within five leagues of Panama. 

But though the formation of a canal from this 
place to Panama, facilitated by the valley through 
which the present road passes, appears to present 
no very formidable obstacles, there is still a better 
expedient. At the distance of about five leagues 
from the mouth of the Chagre, it receives the river 
Trinidad, which is navigable to Embarcadero, and 
from that place to Panama is a distance of about 
thirty miles, through a level country, with a fine 
river to supply water for the canal, and no difficul- 
ty whatever to counteract the noble undertaking. 
The ground has been surveyed, and the facility of 
the work completely ascertained. In the next 
place, safe harbours, at the two extremities of the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 407 

canal, are supplied. At the mouth of the Chagre 
is a fine bay, which received the British seventy- 
Tour-gun ships, in the year T740, vvhen Captain 
Knovvles bombarded the castle of St. Lorenzo ; 
and at the other extremity is the famous harbor 
of Panama. 

Nay, there is still aiiother expedient ibr opening 
the important navigation between the Pacific and 
Atlantic oceans. Farther north, is the grand lake 
of Nicaraguay, which by itself almost extends the 
navigation from sea to sea. Into the Atlantic 
ocean it falls by a navigable river, and reaches to 
within three leagues of the Gulf of Papagayo in 
the Pcicific. It was the instruction of the king of 
Spain to the governor of St. John's castle, not to 
permit any British subject to pass either up or 
down this lake ; " for if ever the English come to 
a knowledge of its importance and value, they 
would soon make themselves masters of this part of 
the country." 

We are tempted to dwell for a moment upon 
the prospects which the accomplishment of this 
splendid, but not difticult, enterprise, opens to 
Britain. It is not merely the immense commerce 
of the western shores of America, extending al- 
most from pole to pole, that is brought as it were 
to her dooF; it is not the intrinsically important, 
though comparatively moderate, branch of British 
commerce, that of the South-Sea whalers, which 
will alone undergo a complete revolution, by sa- 



408 HINTS ON THE NATIONAI 

ving the tedious and dangerous voyage round 
Cape-Horn; but the whole of those immense in- 
terests which Britain holds deposited in the regions 
of Asia, become incalculably augmented in value, 
by obtaining direct access to them across the Pa- 
cific ocean. 

It is the same thing as if, by some great revolu- 
tion of the globe, the eastern possessions of Britain 
were brought nearer to her. The voyage across 
the Pacific, the winds both for the eastern and 
western passage being fair and constant, is so ex- 
peditious and steady, that the arrival of ships may 
be calculated upon almost with as much accuracy 
as that of a mail-coach. 

An immense traffic would immediately begin 
to cover the Pacific ocean. All the riches of In- 
dia and of China, would move towards America. 
The riches of Europe and America would move 
towards Asia. Vast depots would be formed at 
the great commercial towns which would imme- 
diately arise at the two extremities of the central 
canal ; the goods would be in a course of per- 
petual passage from the one depot to the other ; 
and would be received by the ships as they arri- 
ved, and thence conveyed to their ultimate desti- 
nation. 

Is it too much to hope, that China and Japan 
themselves, thus brought so much nearer the in- 
fluence of European civilization, much more con- 
stantly and powerfully subject to its operation. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 409 

ivould not be able to resist the salutary impression, 
but would soon receive important changes in ideas, 
arts, manners, and institutions? If so, the most 
beneficial results might be expected for the whole 
of Asia; that vast proportion of the earth, which 
even in its most favored parts, has been in nil ages 
condemned to semi-barbarism, and the miseries of 
despotic power. 

At least, it is certain that South America, which 
stands so much in need of industrious inhabitants, 
would receive myriads of laborious Chinese, who 
already swarm in all parts of the Eastern Archi- 
pelago, in quest of employment and of food This 
to South America would be an acquisition of in- 
credible importance ; and the connection thus 
formed between the two countries, would still 
further tend to accelerate the acquisition of en- 
lightened views and civilized manners in that very 
barbarous country, China herself. 

Such are a few of the results reasonably to be 
expected from a regulation of the affairs of South 
America. Never, perhaps, was an opportiinily 
offered to a nation of eflecting so great a chanije 
in behalf of human kind, as Britain, from a won- 
derful combination of circumstances, is now called 
upon by so many motives, to help South America 
to accomplish. 

In the year 1790, the scheme of Spanish Ameri- 
can emancipation was first proposed to the late 
Mr. Pitt by General Miranda j it met M'ith the 

3 G 



410 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

most cordial reception from the British minister^ 
but was soon afterwards laid aside for the present, 
on account of Britain and Spain coming to a good 
understanding with each other. 

In the year 1797, Miranda was met at Paris by 
deputies and commissioners from Mexico, and the 
other principal provinces of South America, who 
had been sent to Europe for the purpose of con- 
certing with him the measures to be pursued for 
accomplishing the independence of their country. 
It was decided accordingly, that Miranda should 
in their name again repair to England, and make 
such offers to the British government, as might 
induce it to lend them the assistance requisite for 
effecting the great object of their wishes. 

The instrument which was drawn up, and put 
into the hand of their representative, as the docu- 
ment to the British government, of the proposals of 
the South- Americans, is too remarkable an evidence 
of the views and plans of the leading members of 
the South-American communities, not to deserve at 
the present moment the most serious attention. 

1. The first article states, that the Hispano- 
American colonies having for the most part resol- 
ved to proclaim their independence, were induced 
to address themselves to the government of Bri- 
tain in the confidence she would not refuse them 
that assistance which Spain herself, in the midst of 
peace, had extended to the British colonies of 
America. 



feANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 4ll 

2. The second article stipulates the sum of thir- 
ty millions sterling:, which South-America would 
pay ro Britain for the assistance required. 

3. The third article states the amount of the 
British force which was deemed requisite. 

4. The words of the fourth article are, '' a defen- 
sive alliance between England, the Unitqd States 
of America, and South-America, is so strongly re- 
commended by the nature of things, by the geo- 
graphical position of each of the three countries, 
by the products, industry, wants, manners, and 
character of the three nations, that it is impossi- 
ble for this alliance not to be of long continu- 
ance ; above all, if care be taken to consolidate 
it by an analogy in the political form of the three 
governments; that is to say by the enjoyment of 
civil liberty well understood; nay, we may even 
say with confidence, that this alliance is the only 
remaining hope of liberty, so audaciously out- 
raged by the detestable maxims avowed by the 
French republic. It is the only means left of 
forming a balance of power capable of restraining 
the destructive ambition and desolation of the 
French system." 

5. The fifth article relates to a treaty of com- 
merce between Britain and South- America. 

6. The sixth article stipulates the opening of the 
navigation between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, 
by the isthmus of Panama, as well as by the lake 



412 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

of Nicaraguay ; and the guarantee of its freedom 
to the British nation. 

7. The seventh article respects the arrange- 
ment of the commerce between the dilTerent parts 
of South- America itself, proposed to be left on its 
present footing, till the assemblage of deputies 
from the different provinces of the continent can 
arrange the terms of their union. 

8. The eighth article points to some project 
to be devised, of a connection between the Bank 
of England and those of Lima and Mexico, for 
the purposes of mutual support, and of giving 
England the advantage of that command of the 
precious rnetals v^^hich the country supplying 
them might have it in its power to yield. 

9 — 10. The ninth and tenth articles relate to 
the project of alliance between South America 
and the United States. The principal points are 
the ceding of the Floridas to the United States j 
the Missisippi being proposed as the most advi- 
sable boundary to the two nations -, and the stipu- 
lation of a small military force from the Anglo- 
Americans, to aid in the establishment of the pro- 
posed independence. 

11. The eleventh article respecting the Islands, 
states the plan of resigning all those which belong 
to the Spaniards, excepting only Cuba ; the pos- 
session of which is rendered necessary by the sit- 
uation of the Havannah commanding the passage 
from the gulf of Mexico. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 4l3 

This document is dated at Paris, 22nd Decem- 
ber, 1797. The proposal transmitted to Mr. 
Pitt for the return of general Miranda to Britain 
was acceded to with alacrity ; and the General 
had a conference with that minister in January 
following. 

The proposal was that North America should 
furnish ten thousand troops ; and the British 
government agreed to find money and ships. But 
Mr, Adams, then President of the United States, 
declined to transmit an immediate answer ; and 
the measure was in consequence postponed." 



CHAPTER VI. 

It is now time to survey the positive and relative 
condition of the two primary contending powers, 
France and Britain. The over-grown and formi- 
dable power of France, is depicted in terms of 
the most animated eloquence, in " An Inquiry 
into the state of the nation at the commencement 
of the present administration ;" p. 34 — 117 — 1-58. 
This extraordinary pamphlet is reputed to be the 
joint production of the late Right Honorable 
Charles Fox, and the present Mr. Brougham ; 
who certainly cannot be accused of under-rating 



414 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

the terrible means of destruction which Bona» 
parte possesses. 

"View the signal advantages of France over 
all her enemies in every particular ; a compact 
and powerful territory, impregnable to attack, 
and commanding its neighbors from the excel- 
lence of its offensive positions ; an army enured to 
war, and to constant victory, an armed people in- 
toxicated with natural vanity, and the recollection 
of unparalleled triumphs; a government uniting 
the vigor of military despotism with the energies 
of a new dynast}' ; an administration command- 
ing in its service all the talents of the state ; finan- 
ces unburdened by the debts of old monarchies, 
and unfettered by the good faith of wiser rulers ; 
and finally, a military expedition of vast magni- 
tude, at every moment prepared, and applicable 
to any destination which the change of circum- 
stances might require. 

The acquisition of the Venetian and Tyrolese 
territory, with the confirmation of the French 
power over Switzerland, has completed the do- 
minion of France over the whole of Italy. From 
Dalmatia and the confines of Turkey, round 
to Strasburgh, France has drawn a line of strong 
possessions, by which she completely hems in 
Italy ; cuts her off from every communication 
with the rest of the world; and opens to her the 
closesl intercourse with herself. 

Her sway being so absolute here, it is natural 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 415 

that she should lose no time in exercising all the 
rights of sovereignty. Accordingly, she models 
at pleasure the kingdom of Etruria ; augments 
Cisalpine ; disposes at will of the Court of Rome ; 
and dethrones by a common regimental order 
the royal family of Naples. 

Thus is the surrender ef Italy more absolute and 
unconditional, and in a far greater extent, than the 
courtiers of Charles, of Francis, or of Louis, ever da- 
red flatter their masters to expect. France has now 
become sole mistress of that splendid country from 
the Alps to the straits of Messina. Its position 
which domineers over the Mediterranean, its 
mighty resources ; the fruitfulness of the garden of 
Europe i the bays, and rivers, and harbors, which 
open to its produce the uttermost ends of the earth ; 
the forests which variegate its surface, and only break 
the continuity of culture to augment its powers, by 
preparing for this favored land the dominion of the 
sea ; the genius and fire of its numerous people ; 
the monuments of art; the remains of antiquity; 
the ground on which the glories of their Roman an- 
cestors were atchieved ; all are now in the hands of 
the nation of the world best able to improve them ; 
to combine them; to make them aid one another; 
and, after calling them forth, to the incalculable aug- 
mentation of her former forces, ready to turn them 
against those, if any such shall remain, who still darf 
to be her enemies. 

The other changes of dominion effected by the 



4l6 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

treaty of Presburgh ; the Austrian emperor's cession 
of his possessions in Suabia, and his submission to 
the further spoliation of tlie German empire ; 
though important in themselves, and suffi -ient in any 
former period to alarm all Europe for their conse- 
quences, sink into insignificance after the entire 
surrender of Italy. 

All these changes have only one simple view, the 
diminution of the Austrian monarchy i its separa- 
tion from France by a number of petty kingdoms 
dependant on the French power ; the transfer 
of the emperor's influence in Germany to his ene- 
mies ; and his confiement to the politics of the east 
of Europe ; where also he is closely watched by 
France and her creatures. 

Nor does it make any difference upon the relative 
situation of the powers, that the sacrifices of Austria 
have been made to aggrandsze the dependants of 
France, and not France herself. That overgrown 
empire could not expect to keep together more na- 
tions and countries than it already counted within 
its limits. The only feat which the French power- 
has not attempted, is the conciliation of the various 
people whom it has conquered j the only difficulties 
which it has not mastered, are those which natural 
boundaries present. 

France therefore finds it more easy to complete 
the incorporation of Europe by some intermediate 
process, which may assimilate its heterogeneous parts, 
and prepare them for a lasting as well as an intimate 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 4l7 

union. In the mean time, her sway over the princi- 
palities and powers, whom she calls mto existence, 
is absolute and certain ; her influence is hourly gain- 
ing ground. Should the course of events maintain 
the nominal separation of these dependant kingdoms, 
they may at some future period, revolt from her fede- 
ral empire ; but for years to come, they are as sub- 
servient to her purposes, as if they had no separate 
names. 

The house of Austria is completely humbled j 
she must receive the law from Paris ; she has sacri- 
ficed much, but must be prepared to surrender more. 
Whatever the sacrifice demanded may be, she must 
make it ; whether treasure, or alliances, or digni- 
ties, or territory, or, what is worst of all, principles. 
If the enemy require her to join him in turning 
against Russia, or sharing the plunder of Germany, 
or dividing and pillaging the Turk ; she cannot 
now balance, Agititr de iniperio. France has 
Italy and the Tyrol; the people of Austria are 
crushed ; the French are exalted and exulting. 

What though public stipulations leave to Austria 
the semblance of a great monarchy ; do we not know 
that the only extensive or durable conquests have 
been made gradually; that in treating with a hum- 
bled enemy the victor only rouses him by exacting 
too harsh conditions; and that the wisest policy is 
to take something, and by the present to pave the 
way for future gains «* 

The new victories of France ; the actual aggran- 



418 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL' ^- 

tliaerrient of her empire ; the subjectioti of her ene- 
mies ; and the dread of her invincible arms, have noVIr 
rivetted the chains of the European continent, Thfe 
only hope is gone which Holland, and Swit^erlaad, 
and Italy, and Germany had of once more knowing 
independence. Henceforth, the object of these un- 
happy states must be, not to oppose France, but to 
moderate, if possible^ the violence of her oppressions. 

Were the Swiss thoroughly united together as one 
man, and resolved to resist the power of the masters 
who now surround them on every side, nothing 
could be expected from their efforts, but new scenes 
of bloodshed, and an intolerable augmentation of 
their burdens. While France possesses Savoy and 
Piedmont, and while Suabia and the Tyrol belong ta 
her dependants, who exist only during her pleasure, 
as by her pleasure they were createdj all the exer- 
tions of the Swiss would be inadequate to prevent 
them from being overwhelmed long before any al- 
lies could break through the strong French provin- 
ces that surround him. 

The utter despair with which the Dutch are filled 
of ever seeing the independence of their country re- 
established, so long as Belgium is in the hands df 
France, and their conviction that the time is yet far 
off when any change of affairs may reduce the French 
power, prevent all inclination as well as ail power 
of resistance on the part of Holland. 

The Cisalpine, and the petty states of Germany 
are still more dependant on France. Their disposi- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 419 

^ion to revolt unhappily signifies nothing. For a 
long course of years, they must submit in silence, 
however well inclined to rebel. The petty states 
by \\ horn France has surrounded herself, as well as 
the more powerful dominions which she has succeed, 
ed in subduing, are firmly united to her fortunes j 
some by their weakness, others by disinclination to 
exert their strength in a way which they deem hurt- 
ful to their own interest. 

. So that from Holland to Switzerland, and from 
Switzerland to Turkey, France has covered a fron- 
tier almost every where strong by nature, with de- 
pendant nations, who are not likely to revolt, and 
who must always bear the first shock of a war waged 
against her ; even if they do not actively assist in 
her offensive operations. 

If from a view of the dependencies of France, we 
turn to the contemplation of that prodigious empire 
itself, we shall find as little to cheer our prospects of 
the future fate of the European commonwealth. 
Tlie resources which she draws from Italy, and Ger- 
many, and Holland, are trivial when compared with 
the mass of real and rapidly increasing power, by 
which she has added these states to her dominions. 

A population of above thirty-two millions ; a 
revenue of twenty-five millions sterling, in spite of 
the ruin of her commerce, with a diminution of 
only three millions and a half for the interest of 
debt, notwithstanding the wars in which she 
has been engaged ; a regular army of five hun- 



420 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

dred and fifty thousand men, known in almosfc 
every corner of Europe by the rapidity of their 
conquests, and commanded by the first generals 
in the world; a force not less formidable of men 
whose skill in negociation has completed the victo- 
ries of her troops ; a spirit the most turbulent 
and restless, the most impatient of peace and fear- 
less of war, animating all ranks of her people. 
All these form together a foundation of military 
superiority sufficient to alarm more powerful 
states than any which yet remain in her neigh- 
borhood. 

But a change has within these few years taken 
place in the constitution of the French nation, 
still more formidable in its natural consequences 
to the tranquillity and prosperity of Europe than 
any of those well-known particulars already en- 
umerated. We allude to the system of military 
conscription^ by which their forces are now re- 
cruited, and which has slowly grown up with 
the revolutionary government, and of late been 
Carried into complete effect all over the country ; 
so that it now forms a part of the establishment, 
likely to mingle itself in a short time with all the 
views and habits of the people. 

This conscription affects a// ranks of the com- 
munity; every man iu France, with a very few ex- 
ceptions in favor of certain public functionaries, 
iN a soldier from the age of eighteen to twenty- 
five, not merely by enrolment, as in Austria and 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 421 

Prussia, but in actual service ; whatever be his 
rank, or his fortune, or his pursuits in life, he must 
give up every other view, as soon as he reaches 
his twentieth year, and devote his life for five 
years to the profession of arms alone. 

As there are no exemptions, unless in cases of 
former service, a substitute cannot be procured 
under an enormous sum ; frequently so high as 
seven hundred pounds sterling, never lower than 
four hundred ; and if more than a verv small 
number required substitutes, it would be altogether 
impossible to procure them ; so that, in fact, there 
are scarcely any exceptions to the rule of strict 
personal service. 

The rigor of the police, established all over 
France, renders it quite impossible for any one 
within the specified years to escape. In every 
quarter the gendarmerie have authority to ar- 
rest all the young men whom they can find, and 
detain them until they can prove themselves to 
be exempt from conscription. 

The pay of a French soldier is extremely small 5 
but the rich and poor all live together, and the 
former contribute to improve the common fare. 
Every one endeavors in the first place to make 
himself master of the military art, in order to 
qualify himself for being promoted ; officers are 
chosen from the ranks without any regard to 
birth or fortune ; the emulation and interest of 
the common soldiers are kept up by their chance 



4^2 HINTS ON THP NATIONAL 

ef promotion, and by the voice wjiich they are 
allowed, to a certain degree, in the choice of 
their officers. 

The Imperial Guard, which has many privi- 
leges, and is composed of persons possessing a 
certain fortune, constitutes a species of aristocracy 
of extensive influence in this system. The mili-> 
tary schools, the only branch of public instruq^ 
tion which is much attended to, secure the cojit 
stant supply of the higher branches of the science j 
and the excellent organization of the Etaf-Major- 
General^ to which the victories of the French 
arms are perhaps more owing than to any other 
improvement in their military affairs, keeps alive 
during peace the practice of their scientific ac- 
quirements, while it prepares the most valuable 
collection of practical information, so essential to 
the success oi warlike operations. 

Add to this, that the great offices of the state 
are all in the hands of military men ; that honors, 
as well as power and wealth, are almost confined 
to this favored order ; and that all places of trust, 
from the command of armies to the management 
of negociations, are their patrimony. 

Thus, it is no exaggeration to denominate France 
a great military empire ; to sa}'- that the govern- 
ment now calls forth the whole resources of the 
state, and that every Frenchman is literally a sol- 
dier. Nothing like this has ever appeared since the 
early days of the Roman people. The feudal militia 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, hc. 4^5 

hfld not the same regularity, the same science and 
discipline. The insurrection of Hungary, the 
rising en masse of Switzerland and America, were 
all confined to particular emergencies. 

The national guards, and first conscriptions of 
France herself, which approach nearer to the new 
order of things, were still inferior to it in system- 
atic arrangement, and extent of operation j yet 
by their aid, imperfect as they were in the com- 
parison, she gained all that she had conquered 
Up to the year 1803. 

But her present system is, in truth, a terrible 
spectacle. The most numerous and ingenious 
people in the world have abandoned the arts of 
peace, not for their defence, but after having 
conquered all the nations around them. They 
have betaken themselves to a military life as their 
main pursuit, almost their exclusive occupation ; 
not from impatience of a long-continued quiet, 
but at the end of various revolutions, and after a 
series of the most destructive wars. 

With a government purely military, a stock 
of science peculiarly adapted to the same pursuits, 
and a species of wealth not likely to be immedi- 
ately ruined by such a change, they have estab- 
lished a regular system of discipline, which draws 
every man into the service of the country, and ren- 
ders the whole surface of the most compact, ex- 
tensive, and best situated country in Europe, one 
vast camp, swarming with soldiers. 



424 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

At the head of this camp stands one who com- 
bines the courage of the lion with the craftiness 
of the fox. Bonaparte is the most false and art- 
ful of men ; he combines the most subtle mind 
with the most perfidious heart. He alternately 
oppresses by open violence ; seduces by secret 
fraud ; or assassinates in midnight obscurity. 

His system is to crush the weak, and beguile 
the powerful ; to frighten the timid, and cajole 
the brave. The sword is the favorite engine of 
his government, and is congenial to the turbu- 
lence of his temper. But he combines in his ad- 
ministration every species of support to himself, 
and of danger to his enemies. By the employ- 
ment of enlightened men like Talleyrand, he 
makes even philosophy administer her extensive 
aid to his violence. He has reduced falsehood 
into a system : and adapts his lies with wonderful 
sagacity to whatever character he addresses." 

In the thirteenth volume of the Edinburgh Re- 
view, p. 427, 462, the conscription s^-stem is amply 
explained, and fully illustrated; together with such 
a display of knowledge of the miserable internal 
condition of France, as could be acquired by very 
few residents in Britain. I would seriously recom- 
mend the contemplation of this horror-striking pic- 
ture of the actual condition of the French, and their 
tributary allies, to all that vast body of ingenious 
politicians in these United States, who so constantly 
furnish us with such information as the following : 
namely, 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 425 

" Bonaparte has abolished the feudal tyranny; he 
has broken down all aristocracies and monopolies; 
he has ameliorated the condition of all the nations 
which he has conquered ; the present situation of 
atl the allies of France on the continent of Europe, 
and more particularly of the Freiich themselves, is 
infinitely better in liberty, wealih, food, clothing, 
lodginor, and all personal enjoyments and luxuries, 
than that of the British people, those vile slaves 
who are ground down to the dust by the despotism 
of the tyrant George the rhird." &c. &c. 

After describing with great force and accuracy the 
contents and bearmgs of the conscription-code itself, 
the Reviewer glances at its pressure upon the French 
people and vassal-states ; and concludes, that the 
victorious career of Botiaparte wdl only be sropped 
by the speedy and effectual subjugation of the conti- 
nent o\ Europe. 

" We have thus, says the Statesman who penned 
this article, given a brief abstract of the law of the 
Conscription, collected from the code itself. We 
shall now proceed to state the nature and effects of 
the execution, as represented to us by an observer, 
who with the best opportunities, has witnessed them 
in almost every part of France, during the progress 
of three levies. 

The grand characterestic of the present adminis- 
tration of France is relentless injiexihility. A host 
of informers secures the fidelity of the executive of- 

3l 



i|26 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

ficers. Cases of the most signal and barbarous ri- 
gor crowd all the daily gazettes of the empire, and 
even the journals of Paris ; into which they are com- 
pulsively and aukwardly thrust, in order that the 
quickening impulse of fear may be propagated 
through the entire mass of servitude. 

In the winter of 1807, a member of the congrega- 
tion of St. Sulpice, of the name of Fressinoux, under- 
took to deliver, every Sunday evening, in the 
church of St. Sulpice, lectures on Christian moral- 
ity, {La Morale Chretienne). His auditors were 
numerous, and consisted principally of young men, 
attracted by a well-merited reputation for elo- 
quence. After three discourses, he was summon- 
ed before the police, interrogated concerning 
his views, and informed that he could not possibly 
continue, unless he consented to inculcate on his 
hearers the sacred duty of obedience to the conscrip- 
tion. 

The criminal tribunals of France are almost 
exclusively occupied with one species of delin- 
quency ; happily unknown to the rest of the 
world. They entitle it " Escroqiierie en matiere 
de conscription s" or the extortion of money from 
persons liable to service under fraudulent promises 
of procuring them an exemption. A stranger in 
this great nation is haunted by the spectre of the 
police ; but the native is attended by another foul 
fiend still more hideous, and threatening him with 
more degrading visitations. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 427 

A traveller in France frequently meets on the high 
roads, and particularly in the vicinity of the great 
cities, twenty or thirty of those miserable beings, de- 
nominated refractory conscripts, guarded by a body 
of gendarmerie, and coupled together with a rope 
attached to a Jiorse's tail, as a badge of disgrace. ' 

In the Journal de I'Empire, under the Paris head 
of 21st October 1807, it is stated, that a recent act of 
amnesty had brought back to their colors two htm- 
dred and four refractory conscripts, and ninety-two 
'deserters, of the department of Orwe; of which de- 
partment the zvhole contingent amounts only to six 
hundred and ninety-two , in a levy of sixty-thousand 
men. 

In the details of the conscription-system there is 
a semblance of tenderness towards persons whose si- 
tuation is apt to rouse those indignant feelings, that 
insurgent consciousness of right, which undisguised 
oppression never fails to excite even among the most 
degraded of human beings. Hypocrisy is the de- 
fence of fear against just resentment -, and may 
therefore be well entitled, not only the homage 
which vice offers to virtue, but also the tribute which 
despotism pays to liberty. 

The provisions on the subject of reserve, how- 
ever, are altogether illusory. The ostensible pur- 
pose of its creation is to supply possible deficien- 
cies, and to assist the armies in cases of great 
emergency. The emergency however has always 
been found to exist, and the reserve is uniformly 



428 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

compelled to inarch. Not only are all the con- 
scripts of the current thus swept away, but those 
of the preceding years, who have obtained a 
charter of exemption under the conditions pre- 
scribed by law, are also dragged into the tield by 
a decree of the military chief of their depart- 
ment. 

Another flagrant breach of law, if any enormity 
can be so called, which is committed not only 
with impunity, but under the sanction of public 
authority, must not be omitted. In the first tu- 
mults of the revolution, the parochial registers, at 
no period very accurately kept, were almost whol- 
ly neglected. As therefore no official document 
can be produced for youths between seventeen 
and twenty, the recruiting officers, within the two 
last years, have taken advantage of this circum- 
stance to include in the conscription numbers, 
whose appearance corroborated their assertion, 
that they were beyond the age, (namely, twenty- 
five) and whose remonstrances were rendered un- 
availing by their condition in hfe. 

The most formidable, however, of all the evils 
extraneous to the conscription-code, is a practice 
which has prevailed for some jears past, o{ antici- 
pafing by law the regular levies. The conscripts 
of 1810 were called out so early as December 
1808 ; that is to say, those who in 1810 would at- 
tain the age of twenty, but at the time of antici- 
pation, were only eighteen, were made to serve 
in the army. 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 429 

These and other causes, connected with the 
abuse of unlimited power, bring into the field a nu- 
merous population of boys, in appearance scarce- 
ly able to bear the accoutrements of a soldier, and 
who in their preparatory exercises, are objects 
both of pity and amazement. 

For the great majority even of the better clas- 
ses of conscripts it is almost impossible to obtain 
proxies. When the physical requisites are not 
wanting in the principal, the government indeed 
studiously discourages substitution. The acknow- 
ledged hardships and indeterminate duration of 
the military service tend moreover to enhance so 
enormously the price of the few who are found to 
possess all the requisite qualifications, that they 
fall exclusively to the share of the rich ; the sum 
being far beyond the reach of multitudes, who in 
France, with the habits of refined society, main- 
tain an exterior of tolerable ease. 

Of this class are the amnestied emigrants and 
old proprietaries, who enjoy under the new dy- 
nasty, something of the abstract right, and but 
little of the benefits of postliminium ; and who, in 
the bitterness of mortified pride, and the sadness 
of pining recollection, struggle to uphold a de- 
cent establishment with small fragments of their 
former estates. 

The revolution has on the whole had the effect 
of an Agrarian law, and the equalization of for- 
tunes is, at this moment, among the most promi- 



430 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

went vestiges which the tempest has left behind 
for the instruction of the world. But it is not^e^sy 
to contemplate, without feelings of strong sympa- 
thy, the numbers of impoverished families and de- 
cayed gentlemen, who, wrestling with memory and 
destiny, under a perpetual recurrence of painful 
recollections and hopeless wishes, exhibit through- 
out France striking monuments of the instability 
of human affairs. . ; 

To persons of this description, who hate and 
despise their government, to the great body of pro- 
fessional men, and of drooping merchants and 
manufacturers, who educate their children with 
care and tenderness, and who find no compensa- 
tion in the splendor of the imperial diadem for the 
degradation of their own order, and the loss of do- 
mestic comfort, the conscription appears the max- 
imum of human suffering, the most odious of all 
wrongs, and the most vexatious of all injustice. 

The Lycees, or public schools, the seminaries 
of ecclesiastical noviciate, ihe universities of law 
and physic, are all subject to the visits of the re- 
cruiting officer, and forced to surrender up their 
pupils without exception of genius or taste, at a 
period of life when the morals are in a state of oscil- 
lation, when the character of the frame itself is 
scarcely determined, and the understanding is 
only in the first stages of its development. 

Parents are not only made to suff'er the pains 
of a separation under such circumstances, but 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 45! 

are condemned to the inexpressible grief of seeing 
tlie principles and manners of their children ex- 
posed to total wreck, in the infectious commu- 
nion of the common soldiery; the meanest and 
most profligate of mankind. The scene of real 
distress, exhibited at the balloting of a conscrip-' 
tion, when the parents or friends of the conscript 
are indulged, as is often the case, in drawing his 
ticket from the fatal urn, beggars all description. 
The piercing shrieks and tumultuous acclamations 
alternately uttered on these occasions, by a peo- 
ple of such natural vivacity of character, wholly 
overpower the feelings of a spectator. 

The French conscription, under the garb of 
equality, acts with a most partial and vexatious 
pressure. Men of l^rge fortune, the least respect- 
able of the community of France at this moment, 
either monopolize the substitutes, or corrupt the 
inspecting officers, and thus disentangle them- 
selves from the trammels of the law. The para- 
sites of the court, by intrigue and favor, secure the 
same immunity to themselves and their friends. 
The great military and civil dignitaries of the em- 
pire are privileged 6':f-<^r/o ; and this exemption 
will be gradually extended to all v/hose zeal is 
useful to prop the greatness of the ruling power. 

The burthen then falls with accumulated weight 
upon the three learned professions of divinity, law, 
and physic, the merchants, manufacturers, in a 
word, upon the middle orders of the people ; and a 



432 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

still greater evil is inflicted, by thus confounding 
them with the dregs and lees of the community. 
Feelings and habitudes should be consulted in 
every general act of legislation ; and in this in- 
stance, the distress and inconvenience occasioned 
to the lower orders, bear no proportion to tiie 
misery inflicted on the higher and middling ranks 
of the people. 

It is unnecessary, too, to have recourse to so 
comprehensive a plan of compulsion, for the crea- 
tion of a force adequate to all the purposes of ordi- 
nary tvarfare. Louis the fourteenth, when at war 
with the whole of the north of Europe, maintained 
an army of three hundred thousand men, princi- 
pally made up by voluntary levies; and under 
the last unfortunate monarch of that name, the 
forces of the kingdom, recruited in the same man- 
ner, amounted to two hundred thousand ; of which 
Paris alone furnished annually six thousand^ al- 
though it now yields only fourteen hundred for the 
conscription. 

Notwithstanding the familiarizing experience 
of the past, and the certain expectation of the fu- 
ture, everij new conscription spreads consternation 
through all the families of the empu^e. From the 
commencement of the war against Prussia, until 
the termination of the campaign in Poland, three 
several levies were raised ; the last of which, pro- 
posed in the spring of 1807, created an indescriba- 
ble sensation. Although all correspondcjice rela- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 433 

live to the position of the armies was rigorously 
interdicted, and no letters suffered to pass without 
scrutiny, it was impossible wholly to conceal, at 
least from the public of Paris, the dreadful mortal- 
ity which afflicted the march, and the incredible 
hardships inseparable from the movements of the 
troops, laboring under a scarcity of provisions, 
and the unaccustomed rigorsof a northern winter. 

A third conscription was generally viewed as an 
undertaking much too bold for the internal admin- 
istration, situated as it then was; and particular- 
ly at a moment when a belief was current among 
all ranks, that the emperor would be unable to ex- 
tricate himself from the embarrassments in which 
he was supposed to be involved. The government 
appeared sensible of the hazard, and in order to 
prepare the public mind for the event, caused 
their intention to be announced in whispers 
through the circles and three thousand coffee- 
houses of the capital. 

The effect was every where visible, even to the 
eye of the cursory observer ; an impression of ter- 
ror upon the countenances of those, who either 
were themselves exposed to the danger, or shud- 
dered at the prospect of new revolutionary alarms : 
of suspicion, and joy but half disguised, in the 
lowering brows of the turbulent and disaffected, 
constantly on the alert to improve the concurrence 
of opportunity, and who hailed this desperate ex- 

3 K 



434 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

pedient, as a confirmation of their hopes relative 
to the perils of the army. 

The orator of the government, Renarid St. Jean 
D'AngelVi shed tears of rerl or affected sorrow as 
he stated the necessity of the measure ; and the 
Senate rece'wed it, contrary to their habit, in silent 
acquiescence, and with every indication of reluc- 
tance and dismay, 5^ore thelaw was passed by 
the Senate, the minister of police had issued or- 
ders for the appearance of the conscripts of Pa- 
ris at the Registry. So securely did he rely upon 
the compliant disposition of that venerable body. 

In order to assuage the general feeling, it was 
found advisable to qualify the new call for eighty 
thousand men, by a clause which enacted, that 
they were then to be merely organized, and retain- 
ed within the limits of the empire, as a national 
guard. Circumstances enabled them to adhere to 
this condition, v\hich would undoubtedly have 
been violated, if the armies had sustained a defeat, 
or the campaign been protracted to a more distant 
term. 

It was the established practice of the Romans, in 
their foreign wars, to maintain an army in Italy, 
ready to march in case of disaster ; and a recourse to 
the same policy was indispensably necessary for the 
French commander, to recall victory, had she desert- 
ed his standard ; and to drive his antagonist to the 
conclusion of an ignominious peace, by intimidating 
him with the show of new and inexhaustible assail- 
ants. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 431 

It is not easy to convey a just ideaof the state of 
Pans, during tliis period of uncertainty and alarm. 
1 here never has existed, with a vast majority of its 
inhabitants, a serious reliance on the stability of the 
present government ; and no doubt was then enter- 
ta ned of its immediate d ssolution, if the armies had 
been broken and dispersed. 

The proportion of idle, profligate, and desperate 
adventurers, whom the revolution has engendered, 
or accident collected in Paris, is truly astonishing ; 
and there is still to be found, among the literati of 
ever\ class, and even in the deliberate assemblies, a 
numerous body, with a marked predilection for re- 
publican institutions. The first were and are ripe 
and eager for any change ; and the latter equally 
prepared to re-assert their favorite opinions, and co- 
operate in the subversion of a government, by which 
they are held in contempt, and reduced to a most 
abject and contumelious servitude. 

As Paris, together with the rest of the empire, was 
left almost destitute of troops, the danger was only 
to be counteracted by quickening the vigilance, and 
multiplying the terrors of their domestic inqitisition. 
Among the anomalies of human character that con- 
found all general reasoning, there is none more in- 
comprehensible than the absolute sway which this 
tribunal exercises over the whole of France. A 
people of all others the most mercurial in their tem- 
per ; the most thoughtless in their levity ; the most 
ungovernable in their fury ; under the influence of 



436 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

their present system of police, lose the distinguishing 
features of their character ; and on subjects con- 
nected with the pubhc weal, display the vigilance of 
habitual fear, and all the sobriety and reserve of con- 
summate prudence. They know and observe, as if 
instinctively, the precise limits assigned to the range 
of language ; and conscious that a mysterious ubi- 
quity is one of the attributes of this searching police, 
discipline accordingly the tongue and countenance, 
even in their domestic seclusion. 

In the midst of all this disquietude and fear, pub- 
lic festivals were multiplied, in order to give an air of 
confidence to the administration at home ; apd an 
unusual degree of splendor brightened the court of 
the empress, who remained in Paris, and took a prin- 
cipal share in these mummeries of despotism. Her 
imperial majesty was constantly glittering before the 
public eye, either at the brilliant cercLcs of the Thu- 
illeries ; the numerous and magnificent fetes of the 
Luxembourg and the Garde-Meiible ; or in the 
theatres, at the meanest of which she condescended 
to assist, and to inhale the incense of the multitude. 

The bulletins announcing the most brilliant suc- 
cesses were regularly kept back for some days, and 
rumors of disaster intentionally circulated, that the 
grateful intelligence might produce the greater sen- 
sation. These, and other contrivances, however, had 
but little effect in quickening the sluggish loyalty of 
the body of the people ; who indeed, at present, for 
the most part, manifest a chilling indifference to the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 437 

personal exhibitions of the imperial family ; and ap- 
pear to have lost, in this respect, all the characteris- 
tic fervency of their nation. 

These trembling anxieties, and humble precau- 
tions, will perhaps appear strange to those who only 
view at a distance the gigantic frame of this tremen- 
dous government, and have not reflected on the 
various dangers which precrpitate the fall of a power 
founded in force. History shows with what rapidity 
of descent old and deeply rooted establishments 
have sometimes fallen to the ground ; and the cir- 
cumstances of the French capital in the year 1806, 
may warrant the presumption, that a system, resting 
only on the surface, by its own oppressive weight ; 
with no prescriptive authority ; with ievf artificial 
barriers ; with no titles to veneration or to love ; 
might have been struck down by the first gust of 
adversity. 

The alarm which was evidently felt, while it gilds 
the future with a ray of hope, practically illustrates a 
great maxim, whicli cannot be too often inculcated 
upon the rulers of every country ; that for power 
there is no more perishable foundation than/^-ar. 

If the conscription be hateful to Frenchmen, it 
is still more so to the countries annexed to their 
empire. In Italy and the low countries, many 
motives conspire to sharpen the sensibility of the 
sufferers, and to foment that rancorous animosity, 
which they so generally entertain against their op- 
pressors. Their hereditary antipathies, the incalcu- 



438 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

lable and heart-struck evils inflicted upon them by 
the French repubhc and her armies, the record of 
which is written in the flesh, and cannot be erased ; 
the ruin of their old and favorite institutions ; the 
defacement of their monuments of superstition and 
of art; the impoverishment of all classes; and the 
actual stoppage of every source of private comfort, 
and public prosperity ; all conspire to deepen their 
hatred against France. 

Under the exasperation of past and present 
wrongs, they send forth their youth with an ex- 
treme reluctance, of which their oppressors are 
fully aware. In the distribution of the levies 
among the departments, the contingent allotted 
to the incorporated territories is designedly small; 
but the proportion, nevertheless, of their refractory 
conscripts is astonishingly great, and the coer- 
cive measures for the punishment of disobedience, 
tend to increase the odium of the law itself. 

The common ends of political dominion, and 
the purposes of fi.-cal regulations, of the conscrip- 
tion, and of espionage, have given a monopoly of 
all offices of profit and trust to Frenchmen, whose 
conciliatory manners and affected moderation are 
insufficient to allay the jealousy resulting from 
their intrusion. 

As the Romans spread themselves over the pro^ 
vinces of their empire, these new conquerors in- 
undate every country where the supremacy of their 
arms is felt and acknowledged. The Napoleon 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 4^9 

code, and the language of its authors, are estab- 
lished in the courts of Westphalia, and the go* 
vernin-ents and civil employments are administer* 
fd almost exclusively by Frenchn>en. Clerks 
hfjve been draughted from the post-offices of Paris 
to conduct similar establishments in Hamburgh 
atul Dautzitk ; the custom-house officers of Bour- 
deaux and Nantz regulate the whole Baltic coast. 
In the countries nominally allied to France, (which 
are treated with less lenity than the territories an- 
nexed to her empire) public authority is every- 
where exercised by Frenchmen, and what the re- 
script of the imperial legislator spares, private ra- 
pacity does not fail to devour. 

The members of the confederation of the Rhine 
are not subjected to the conscription ; for, like the 
Romans, whose policy it was, not to make their 
subjects or allies as warlike as themselves, the mo- 
dern pacificators exact no very copious supplies 
of men, but extort incredible contributions for the 
pay and clothing of their own troops. 

MoUien, the minister of the French Treasury, 
in the printed budget of 1807, felicitates his em- 
peror on this subject, in the following terms : — • 
" Your Majesty, Sire, has protected your people, 
both from the scourge and the burdens of war. 
Your armies have added to their harvest of glory, 
one o(foreign contributions ; which has assured their 
support, their clothing and their pay." 

It is the object of the French, not merely to 



440 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

crush the armies, but to ruin the finances of Ger- 
many, in order more completely to extinguish the 
means and the hope of future resistance. In Mol- 
lien's Rationariiim, the " Recettes extraordinaires et 
eiterieures are stated at more than thirty-two mil- 
lions of livres ; a sum exclusive of the exactions for 
the maintenance of the troops, the splendid estab- 
lishment of the generals, and the gratification of 
private cupidity. This surplus is thrown into the 
list of Ways and MeanSy to give color to an idea 
publicly instilled, that foreign tribute will one 
day wholly exonerate the masters of the world from 
the burdens under which they now groan. 

The conscripts are kept as much as possible be- 
yond the frontiers, not merely for the purposes of 
conquest and rapine, but also that they may the 
sooner lose the qualities of the citizen, and be- 
come altogether the creatures of the general. 
And with a view to render this conversion more 
perfect, and more secure for the government, the 
principal leaders are frequently transferred from 
one corps to another, that no dangerous attach- 
ment to individuals may arise from a long con- 
tinuance in the same command. 

Nine-tenths of the present French officers have 
sprung from the ranks. Educated in distant camps 
they know no other country ; and habituated by 
long devotion to the trade of war, it has become 
their element and their passion. Their whole 
fortune is staked on the sword 5 and their attach- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, kc. 44 i 

ment is therefore necessarily secured under the 
auspicious influence of a leader, whose indefatiga- 
ble ambition occupies them in their favourite pur- 
suits ; and whose liberal impai^tialify feeds the 
hope of preferment, and divides the fruits of con- 
quest. To their credit and example is due much 
of that spirit, which, notwithstanding the above- 
mentioned causes of alienation, seems to animate 
the whole frame of the army ; and no small share 
of that portentous success which has attended the 
course of the French arms. 

Of the eighteen Marechaux cV Empire fourteen 
have either emerged from the ranks, or ascended 
from the lowest employments. Most of the Gen- 
erals of Division, and others who hold the princi- 
pal commands, have the same origin, and suffi- 
ciently prove that war is an experimental science j 
and that military renown is not the prerogative of 
birth, but the harvest of toil, or the bounty of for- 
tune. 

These men, whose duties have almost wholly 
estranged them from the refinements and indul- 
gencies of polished intercourse, retain all the lead- 
ing features of their original department in life ; 
a fierce and turbulent nature ; a wild, irregular 
ambition; a total ignorance of the utility of civil 
laws ; and a sovereign contempt for letters. 

As they partake largely of the prey, they zeal- 
ously co-operate in the views of him, whom ne- 
cessity has led them to acknowledge as a master ; 

3 1. 



4,42 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

but should he be prematurely removed from the 
scene, probably his posthumous aims will not be 
accomplished with equal fidelity. If it be true 
that military governments are at all times hostile 
to regular monarchical succession, there is no 
possibility of a quiet transmission of power in 
France under her present circumstances. 

The military of every description are also very 
unfit guardians for a legal constitution ; and more 
especially unfit are those imperial generals, in 
whose minds no idea of subordination to civil au- 
thority, or of uncontested descent in the reigning 
family, could ever have taken root. The same 
daring enterprise which has borne them forward 
to their present elevation, would not suffer them 
to remain inactive, if supreme command were 
placed within their reach. They w^ould tear the 
sceptre from a feeble hand, and dispute the prize 
with the same ferocious violence, and desperate 
resolution, with which they are now grasping at 
the dominion and the treasures of the rest of the 
world. 

During their contentions, the rest of the Euro- 
pean continent might indeed be allowed to re- 
spire 3 but independent of the established maxim, 
that a conquering nation must always be misera- 
ble, there is ?w prospect of amelioration for France 
herself The establishment o^ freedom in that 
country is hopeless ; nay, the great bulk of the 
people are alike incapable of the temperate enjoy- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &G. 443 

ment of liberty, and decidedly averse from the 
form of a popular government. 

No good can acrue from the mere external 
frame of the Electoral Colleges and Deliberative 
Assemblies. 1 hey have no basis of ancient opin- 
ion to command respect, nor reputation of consis- 
tency to inspire confidence ; and have not indeed, 
in the view of any branch of the community, an 
existence or a will, distinct from that of the throne 
to which they are appended. Under the shadow 
of a constitution still preserved, their election can 
never take place, unless ratified by the emperor ; 
and depends, in practice, altogether on his nomi- 
nation. The princes of the blood, and the great 
dignitaries of the state are officially members of 
the seriate, and to this body the generals of divi- 
sion, detached from the foreign service, are regu- 
larly associated, so as to give them almost a nu- 
merical preponderance. 

The civil functionaries of every class have not 
only dishonored the republican character by a 
shameless apostacy, but prostitute the dignity of 
human nature itself, by assuming the trade of spies 
and informers. In all their discourses and wri- 
tings, they inculcate the speculative doctrine of 
oppression, with as much zeal as their oppressors 
propagate by conquest its practical horrors. The 
mere wantonness of despotism could never exact, 
nor could the most inordinate vanity relish a strain 
of adulation which would disgrace the worst pe- 
riods of Roman degeneracy. 



444 MINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

The tyrant, who is known to require this tribute 
on all occasions, has it in view not only to com- 
plete his savage triumph over the patriotism of 
France, but to bring the cause oi freedom itself into 
general contempt, by exhibiting the base servility 
of those who so lately undertook to vindicate the 
liberties of mankind. This brutal feeling is stri- 
kingly displayed in Bonaparte's bulletins from 
Spain, which heap the most gross, unmanly, infa- 
mous calumnies upon the Spanish patriots, and 
their glorious efforts in the cause of national inde- 
pendence, and personal freedom. 

There are, no doubt, numbers in France who 
still cherish a preference for republican institu- 
tions ; many who officiously promote the mea- 
sures, in order to heighten the odium of the gov- 
ernment j and a iew who submit with evident re- 
pugnance to lend their personal weight to the con- 
solidation of the new system. But the republi- 
cans will make no sacrifices of interest to princi- 
ple, and the others can have little influence, when 
opposed to a majority who have fortified their na- 
tive dispositions by the habit of obsequiousness. 

The fabric of a free state can never be reared 
by such hands, nor framed from such materials, as 
the populace of Paris, or the soldiery of the fron- 
tiers. Should the imperial seat be vacated within 
a short period of time, the Legislative Assemblies 
miglit, like the Roman senate in their contest with 
Maximin, maintain a struggle with some firmness 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 445 

and vigor; but with no permanent means, and 
scarcely with the benefit of obtaining a choice of 
masters. 

When we meditate upon the probable career of 
an army now augmented to seven himdred thou- 
sa?id men, greater than any which Rome ever 
maintained in the meridian of her power, and im- 
bued with such moral and physical energies, our 
apprehensions for France vanish before our mel- 
ancholy forebodings for the rest of the European 
continent. 

A nation of soldiers must be occupied. Plun- 
der is their food ; and will be sought wherever it 
is to be found. A people at war from principle, 
says Montesquieu, must necessarily triumph, or 
be ruined. They will labor in their vocation, 
and never make peace but as conquerors. Such 
a temperament as actuates the chiefs and instru- 
ments of the present French conspiracy against 
mankind, is essentially at war with all the moral 
virtues and generous principles of our nature ; 
with the gentle charities, as well as with the 
hoarded treasures of peace. 

The time perhaps is fast approaching, when 
these new pacificators will embrace the whole 
continent of Europe in what they term their 
'^ Grand system of federation a7id alliance.'" The 
powers already comprehended in it, will, like the 
allies of Rome, soon seek in avowed subordina- 



446 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

lion, an alleviation of the miseries studiously at- 
tached to their nominal independence. 

Their incorporation will, however, have another 
character, and other effects ; not of a submission 
assuaged by the hope of repose and of protection ; 
but an unconditional surrender of all that enno- 
bles and sweetens existence, to a power M'ith 
all the rapacity which stimulated, without the mo- 
deration that tempered, the conquests of Rome; 
with the vices of her decline, and the fierceness 
of her infancy ; with her insolent carriage, with- 
out her healing arts. The genius of this domin- 
ion will be as different from that of the Anto- 
nines, as the character of the new emperor is oppo- 
site to that of Trajan, to whom it is now, among 
his subjects, the fashion to compare him. 

In Bonaparte, although we may admire the 
qualities of a consummate general, and of a pro- 
found politician, we can never discover the majes- 
tic form of a mighty monarch} but rather trace 
the mixed image of a Tiberius and an Attila ; the 
gloomy, suspicious temper, the impetuous rage, 
the jealous alarms of the domestic tyrant, and 
the immeasurable ambition, the savage manners, 
the stern cruelty of that barbarian, who ostenta- 
tiously proclaimed himself " The scourge of God.'' 

Secure of impunity, and careless of censure, he 
has at length discarded the common prevarications 
of tyranny, and now rests his pretensions on the 
avowed power of the sword. He has already 



BANKRUPTCY OP BRITAIN, &C. 44? 

burst asunder the ties that bound Europe up in 
one social commonwealth, and stifled even the 
last sighs of freedom, wherever his influence has 
been extended. There is not, at this moment, 
throughout the whole continent of Europe, a press 
exempt from the supervision of his police ; nor 
an asylum in which an obnoxious individual could 
find safety. 

When Cicero complains to Marcellus of the 
unbounded sway of Caesar, he consoles himself 
that there is still security in silence ^ although the 
privilege of complaint may be denied. But those 
who are immediately subject to the French power, 
have not even this consolation ; and are marked 
out for vengeance, unless they find matter for 
applause in every deed of their rulers. 

In the French capital, even literary criticism is 
under political control ; and either frowned into 
silence, or forced to commend, when its objects 
proceed from the favorites, or minister to the 
views of the government. The effects which 
this species of violence, and the ascendency of 
the military spirit, have uniformly exerted on the 
productions of the mind, are now strikingly visi- 
ble in the rapid decline of general literature j in 
the meetings and exhibitions of the second and 
third classes of the Institute, which are to the last 
degree contemptible ; and in the degeneracy of the 
bar and the pulpit, of which the dignity and the 
eloquence have wholly disappeared. 



448 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

The manifest tendency of these restraints on 
the press, is not simply to enervate the vigor and 
debase the faculties of the mind ; but to stifle the 
censure, and pervert the evidence of history, no 
longer the light of truth, and the witness of ages. 
In the year 1808, "A History of the Roman Re- 
public," was written at the command of Bonaparte, 
hy L'Evesgiie, a memher of the Institute, and Pro- 
fessor of History in the college of France. Its 
purpose is to decry the republican virtue of Rome j 
and it is announced in the title page, as a work 
"* destined to root out the inveterate prejudices 
which the world has entertained on that subject." 
The preface concludes with the following phrase : 
" Is it then for the French to bow the knee before 
Roman grandeur ? All grandeur abases itself 
before that of our nation ^ before that of our 
hero." 

" Compared to this state of things, the former 
condition of Europe, with all its lumber and frip- 
pery, and its manifold and fatal abuses, appears 
not only tolerable, but happy. We would rather 
see the balance of Europe bandied through the 
hands of the Plenipotentiaries of the Hague or of 
Ratisbon, than in the custody of the Protector of 
the Rhenish Confederation. 

From the scene before us we turn, with an eye of 
regret, to the progressive though imperfect arrange- 
ments of the last century ; when the two extremes 
nf Europe were connected by ties, not merely of ge- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 449 

neral humanity, but of domestic feeling ; when the 
improvement, the lights, and the pleasures of each 
member of this great family were common and ac- 
cessible to all ; \\hen the excesses of political tyranny 
were restrained by the dread of reproach, and the 
weaker states protected from the strong by mutual 
vigilance, or rather by imaginary fears. 

The dissolution of a charm so salutary to all par- 
ties was first occasioned by that profligate policy of 
Russia, Austria and Prussia, which dismembered 
Poland. The dismemberment of Poland first broke 
the spell of mutual trust and apprehension, and rou- 
sed the slumbering genius of conquest, by showing 
to every ambitious state, that there was no insuper- 
able impediment in the jealousy or justice of their 
potCHt rivals. 

After this there remained but one serious obstacle 
to the subjugation of the European continent ; the 
Germanic constitution^ that huge body, without 
strength or grace, which possessed neither ability nor 
inclination for conquest, and stood in the centre of 
Europe, maintaining an uneasy, fluctuating equili- 
brium, counteracting the intrigues, and repressing 
the prurient ambition of the south. As long as this 
power, with all its weaknesses and vices of construc- 
tion, stood erect, the equipoise could not have been 
entirely lost 5 nor the continent of Europe cantoni- 
zedmto dependant principalities. 

It was therefore assailed with an indiscreet preci- 
pitation, which but too clearly indicated the object 

3 M 



450 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

for which it was sacrificed. A finishing stroke was 
put to the liberties of the north of Europe by the 
system introduced in its stead ; and the languid in- 
difference with which this substitution was viewed or 
resisted, afforded a melancholy presage of the uni- 
versal wreck that was to ensue. 

It is not to mere ignorance of their danger that 
thesupineness of the northern powers is owing. They 
are not only bewildered in the stupor of fear, but 
overwhelmed by a sense of weakness. The corrup- 
tions and abuses of their internal government have 
shaken all trust in the allegiance of the subjects ; 
and the experience of mutual treachery has extin- 
guished all confidence in their external relations. 
Having wrestled with their enemy, they know their 
unfitness for another rencountre ; and seeing no 
hope but in his forbearance, suffer themselves to be 
lulled into inaction, by professions and promises 
which can deceive those only who have no resource 
if violated. 

In the mean time, well assured of the adequacy 
of his means, both of fraud and of force, he makes 
war at the time and in the manner most suited to 
their development. He grants a truce to Austria ; 
and when the work of destruction is accomplished in 
another quarter, will return to satisfy, at one blow, 
all the old animosities and new antipathies of France 
against her hereditary rival. 

Russia, without resources or courage to face this 
athletic antagonist ; disheartened and broken by 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 451 

faer late heavy fall, and debauched by the profligate 
expectation of sharing the spoil, will probably exult 
over the disasters of her neighbor, and ohsletricate 
at the birth of those affiliated kingdoms that are to 
be extracted from the bowels of the Austrian mo- 
narchy. Her turn will inevitably come, when the 
iwermediate powers are rent \nto fragments \ or, 
as the French term it, unravelled [rffilh ;) a circum- 
stan e which lays her completely open, and renders 
the great pillar of her security, her distance, of little 
or no avail. 

The progress of the French, during the contests 
of l8o6 — 7, in the north of Europe, in the accom- 
plishment of this object, has done more to facilitate 
the subjugation of Russia, than could have been ef- 
fected by ten times her loss of blood and treasure. 
Austria, if it had pleased the conqueror, might have 
been annihilated at Austerlitz, and Prussia soon 
after the battle of Friedland; but the surer policy 
was that which was more patient and cautious. To 
break down all their outworks however Prussia was 
to be immediately sacrificed, whose exemplary fate 
might inspire terror, but could not excite odium ; 
and whose troops were in fact the best constituted, 
and the most formidable in Europe. 

Whoever follows in thought the extension of the 
Roman arms over the states of Italy, and the distant 
countries brought under their yoke, may here trace a 
curious similarity, both of cause and effect; and 
upon a general survey of the history of mankind 



452 HUNTS UN THE NATIONAL 

will not be surprised if Francis and Alexander ex- 
perience the fate of Antiochus and Mithridates. 

As to Spain, the imbecility of the government, 
the corruption of the nobles, and the long habits of 
slavery and superstition among the lower orders, 
hold out but a feeble hope for a nation which has to 
contend against such fearful odds, in the character 
and the means of the usurper, in numbers, discipline, 
and preparation. And it now appears that the 
curtain is about to drop upon the long and disastrous 
tragedy of the subjugation of continental Europe. 

England, however, remains, the last obstacle to 
the establishment of universal dominion, and the 
richest prize for the avidity of rapine. To Britain, 
therefore, from appetite and principle, the eye of 
this hydra-headed monster is steadily directed, 
and the whole energy of his increasing means 
must be ultimately applied. AVhat might be safe- 
ly inferred a priori^ is confirmed, not only by open 
threats and declarations, but also by every <^£>m«- 
7f/(r expression of feeling indulged in the French 
metropolis. 

In all the diplomatic audiences, and in tiie pri- 
vate associations of the leading members of the 
government, the sentiment towards Britain betrays 
itself in every word and gesture, and exerts an 
influence more like that of passion than of the or- 
dinary calculations of interest, or of national an- 
tipathy. The public functionaries universally, 
and the speculative politicians of every class, 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 453 

either from the force of imitation, the compliance 
of servility, or the instinct of plunder, manifest 
the same spirit in all their reasonings and dis- 
courses, through which it filtrates in invective or 
menace, or more frequently bursts forth in the 
overflowings of exultation, as they measure their 
approaches to the goal. 

The liberty of the seas, and commercial peace, are 
held out to delude the famished multitude both at 
home and abroad ; but the military and civil de- 
partments are taught to despise these objects, and 
to look to more congenial and substantial rewards. 
Power and booty are the excitements employed to 
quicken their zeal in fostering and disseminating 
those rancorous antipathies and jealousies which 
are to reconcile all parties to the indefatigable 
prosecution of a war, that is to terminate only 
with the ruin of England. They employ the 
parallel of Rome and. Carthage ; not as a rhetorical 
comparison, but as an encouraging and a certain 
analog!/. 

The plan of universal conquest, imputed origin- 
ally to Louvois, but with more truth ascribed by 
Mr. Burke to the French Executive Directory, is 
iiov/ not merely digested into a regular system, 
but is actually in a course of execution, and pro- 
ceeding with a steadiness and success, which must 
strike alarm into the most confident and unthink- 
insr. 



454 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

The world, in the opinion of all Frenchmen, is 
to be again subdued by the discipline and the arts 
of Rome. Folard's FolybiuSy Mac/navel on Livy, 
and Montesquieu on the Grandeur et Declination, 
are more than ever the manuals from which they 
draw their lessons of perseverance and cunning. 
The reading classes of France have always been 
fond of historical research. Their republic made 
them passionate admirers, and enliglitened imita- 
tors of antiquity ; and their government, availing 
itself of this predilection for the victorious com- 
monwealths of Greece and Rome, soon taught 
them to overlook altogether individual interests and 
tastes, and enjoyments, both in their foreign poli- 
tics, alnd in the details of their internal economy. 

Thej' admit no balanced advantages, or diver- 
ging claims. All the capacities, and energies, and 
habitudes of private life, are unrelentingly wrested 
to the production of force, for the subjugation of 
the globe ; or as co-ordinate with this object, for 
the agrandizement of the reigning family. The 
changes of form in their government have occa- 
sioned no remission in this pursuit. It has always 
been spoken of among them with confidence and 
zeal. Events have recently brought it more into 
notice ; and nothing now remains but to atchieve 
the ultimate object, " la grand pensee^' as it is em- 
phaticaih'- styled in the coteries of Paris." 

But the parallel between ancient Rome and 
France, and between Carthage and Britain, how- 
ever gratifying it might be to the vanity of the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 455 

great nation, is by no means correct. For the 
French have neither the steady, desperate, valor 
of the Roman soldiers, nor is France now so pow- 
erful relatively to the rest of the world, as Rome 
was just before Carthage fell. 

And still less correctly does the parallel hold 
between Carthage and Britain. For Carthage 
was merely a sordid gatherer of pelf, without 
civilization or learning; a pedling, trading coun- 
try, without military talents or courage ; coward- 
ly, fraudulent, cruel ; worsted in perpetual con- 
flicts even with the petty island of Sicily. Nay, so 
intrinsically weak and spiritless was she, as to 
yield, with all her maritime and commercial ex- 
perience, to the first rude naval armaments fitted 
out by the Romans. 

Duillius, the Roman consul, gained a naval 
victory over the Carthaginian fleet with a body 
of mere landsmen, stowed in awkward, clumsily 
constructed vessels. The ships of war were rowed 
alongside their antagonist, and being held firmly 
together by the grapling irons, the men on each 
side fought hand to hand ; and the steady, deter- 
mined valor of the Roman soldiers of course pre- 
vailed over the feeble resistance of the rnercenarij 
troops of Carthage. 

Add to this, the comparatively small extent and 
scanty population of Carthage, which was also 
weakened by the beggarly, ignorant democracy 
of her government ; whence she was so constantly 



456 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

torn by party-factions as to be unable to atVord 
any of her own citizens to serve as soldiers in the 
infantry. She therefore hired sh^angers to fight her 
battles. Her cavalry indeed, consisting of the 
Numidian horse, and not n\^(\e np of hired stran- 
gers, was so superior, as uniformly to beat the Ro- 
mans when engaged in an open champaign coun- 
try. These troops, after the conquest of Carthage, 
were incorporated into the Roman cavalry. 

It was no xery great wonder then, that Rome, 
having no other enemy to contend with, and being 
mistress of nearly all Europe, should be able to 
vanquish Carthage, whose fleet was ineffectual ; 
whose population was scanty, factious, and cow- 
ardly ; and above all, whose government was de- 
mocratic ; it being absolutely impossible in the 
nstture of things, that a democracy can be either 
lasting, or powerful, or free. 

" But Britain, from her geographical position ; 
tier insular situation ; her well-balanced and free 
gbvernmenfc ; the virtue, talent, enterprise, skill, 
and spirit of her people ; her unparalleled local 
advantages, both natural and acquired ; has ob- 
tained an extensive political influence in all the 
quarters of the world, and the now undisputed do- 
minion of the sea. Hence her power to support 
her t: lends, unci to annoy her enemies ; while she 
is herself secure against every attack from with- 
out. 

So superior are the British to the French sea- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 45? 

men ; so little now comparatively depends upon 
the number of men, and so much upon naval tac- 
tics, that the crowd of Frenchmen on board their 
vei»sels serve no other purpose than to increase 
their own slaughter. There is scarcely a single 
sea-fight in which the French escape being van- 
quished, however superior they may be to the 
English in number of men, and in weight of metal. 

Britain also in this most essential point enjoys 
a permanent superiority. Extensive commerce 
alone can produce good seamen ; and a stable, free 
government, alo7ie can create an extensive com- 
merce. National industry can never flourish un- 
der the rapacity of military despotism. Ages 
must pass away before France will cease to be 
ground down to the dust by her warlike chiefs j 
and until she can respire in peace, her external 
prosperity will be precarious, and her naval pow- 
er never again lift its head. Military despotism 
cannot, by any prodigal waste of blood and trea- 
sure, produce the extensive industry and commer- 
cial enterprise, which can only take root and 
grow under the equitable protection of a free and 
popular government. 

l\\ the present state of the world also, when long 
and uniform experience has shown what immense 
sources of national power an extensive commerce 
invariably opens, a naval power cannot fail of 
exercising an incredible influence over the rest of 
the world ; because almost all nations are vulnera- 

3n 



458 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

ble in their trade or their colonies ; the ruin of 
which dries up the springs of revenue, and the 
means of effectually prosecuting a long-continued 
war. 

Britain possesses likewise many local advanta- 
ges and conveniences in the number of her navi- 
gable rivers and canals, which communicate with 
all her principal manufacturing towns, and facili- 
tate the transport of bulky articles of commerce 
from one sea to another. In the advantages of 
internal navigation she surpasses all other nations. 
No one of her midland manufacturing towns is 
more than seventy miles from the sea, or the port 
where commodities either for the home or foreign 
market, are shipped. 

National strength must always consist in a pop- 
ulation proportioned to the extent of territory, 
and excelling in courage, wealth, and industry. 
Britain, in proportion to the extent of her territo- 
ry, is more populous than any other country in 
Europe, excepting, perhaps, Holland. The ex- 
ploits of the British armies in Egypt, in Portugal, 
and in Spain, prove conclusively, that in valor 
and military talent, they are every way equal to 
their insolent and over-weening antagonists of 
France. 

The industry of Britain surpasses that of every 
other country in the world. And her public and 
private wealth, at this moment, exceeds the aggre- 
gate property of all the rest of Europe. The im- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 459 

iiiense capitals of her merchants employed in com- 
merce; the small profits of stock and its quick ra- 
turns ; the low rate of interest; the skill and en- 
terprise of her manufacturers and farmers ; incon- 
testibly prove her to be in an unparalleled state 
of national prosperity and strength. 

The credit and stability of the Bank of England 
renders all the payments by post-bills, or bank- 
notes, rapid and certain. The comparatively 
small extent of Britain, the continual communica- 
tion of her trading towns with each other, London 
being the great emporium of the world, where all 
the operations of exchange with foreign countries 
are concentrated, the unshaken confidence of the 
people in the public funds, the peculiar form of 
the government, the habits and manners of the 
population, all contribute to render the circulation 
of the national capital active and rapid. 

The annual produce of the loans and public reve- 
nue which is dispersed in every direction to defray 
the nation's expenses, passes rapidly among all the 
classes of the community, and in its rotation soon 
returns into the hands of the monied men, who, when 
required, lend it again to the government ; so that at 
length, together with the produce of the yearly taxes, 
it is again accumulated in the exchequer. This re- 
turn m Britain is accomplished in the course of one 
year. 

The force of a given quantity of capital is com- 
pounded of its sum and the rapidity with which it 



460 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

circulates. If twenty millions sterling are returned 
in any given country with three times the velocity 
that forty millions are circulated in another coun- 
try, the force of the twenty millions to put industry 
in motion, and consequently to augment the na- 
tional wealth and strength, will be to that of the 
forty millions, in the proportion of three to two. 

Commerce most essentially constitutes the strength 
and happiness of a nation, under any form of gov- 
ernment ; because it introduces that industry and 
those arts without which the manners of a people 
cannot be civilized. It is not the number of pas- 
sive, but of useful, active citizens, which makes a 
commercial state powerful ; and in proportion to 
the internal trade, the demand for its manufactures, 
and the extent of its foreign commerce, are the ca- 
pacities of a nation for permament and effectual ma- 
ritime power and strength." 

Whoever wishes to see this subject more amply 
examined and illustrated may consult the instructive 
pages of Mr. M^Arthur's Political and Financial 
Facts, &c." p. 178 — 206, from which the foregoing 
observations respecting the permanent sources of 
British power are taken. 

- So much for the parallel between Britain and 
Carthage. It is natural however that Bonaparte 
should anxiously seek the destruction of the British 
empire, as the only barrier to his scheme of universal 
domination. The earnest insatiable craving after 
power is the instinct of every great mind j and no- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 46 1 

thing but the most invincible necessity can check 
its constant progress towards dominion. Perhaps 
he is not in reahty more base and cruel than Robes- 
pierre, or Marat, or the butchers of the Executive 
Directory ; but having more talent, and a greater 
physical force at his command, he is an object of 
more extensive alarm and terror ; and cannot pos- 
sibly be prevented from laying the whole world 
waste in blood and desolation, but by the determined 
and effectual resistance of Britain. 

" Besides, the ambitious designs of France are not 
of a recent date ; nor do they result merely from the 
towering mmd of the warrior who now wields the 
sceptre of her ancient monarchs with uncontrolled 
sway. The French have always been naturally an 
ambitious people, and passionately enamoured of 
military glory. The desire of universal dominion 
is as essentially the character of France, as the love 
of national independence and personal freedom is 
the character of Britaui, and a sordid craving after 
gain is characteristic of the Dutch. 

The views and disposition of Bonaparte exactly 
harmonize with the prevailing military passion of 
his people ; and to this, accompanied with his extra- 
ordinary genius and success in war he owes his as- 
cendancy to the imperial purple upon the ruins of 
the old monarchy, and the destruction of the recent 
republic of France. But his schemes of conquest 
are not original ; neither has he alone rendered them 
familiar to the French people. 



46)^ . HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

Under the Bourbons France uniformly endeavor- 
ed, whenever an opportunity occurred, to spread 
destruction around her, and to execute her plans of 
plunder and aggrandizement on every side. The 
restless ambition, tlie perfidy, and the insatiable 
spirit of the French blazed out to their height under 
Louis the Fourteenth, who over-ran and ravaged 
countries; ruined and dethroned sovereigns; frater- 
nized and deceived the people of foreign countries, 
and measured his steps rapidly onward to the subju- 
gation of Europe, until he was first checked in his 
progress by William the third, at the head of the 
grand alliance, and afterwards beaten into becoming 
weakness and submission bv the Duke of Marl- 
borough. 

It should be remembered, that wherever Louis 
went, he revolutionized the countries that he con- 
quered. Whenever he came into a new territory 
he established his chamber of claims^ by which he 
inquired if the conquered country or province had 
any dormant or disputed claims any cause of com- 
plaint, any unsettled demand upon a7iy other 
state or province, upon which he might wage war 
upon sUs.h state, and thus discover again new 
ground for devastation, and gratify his ambition by 
new conquests. He actually went to war with Hol- 
land, because, as he said, she had not treated him 
•with siiffieient respect. 

His overgrown power was ably but unsuccess- 
fully resisted by the allies during the war that ter- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 46S 

minated so favorably for France at the peace of 
Nimeguen. After that treaty, the insolence of 
the Grand Monarque knew no bounds, and scarce- 
ly a month passed without some new aggressions 
by France on the continent of Europe. 

This principle of universal domination has 
never been extinct ; nay, it has never slept in 
France, except perhaps for a few years, during 
the administration of Cardinal Fleury. At the 
breaking out of the French revolution, indeed, 
this object was prosecuted with greater ardor 
than it had been before ; and her regicide chiefs 
then entertained the same designs of ambition in 
the subjugation of the European continent, which 
Bonaparte has, of late years, so glaringly mani- 
fested and carried into execution. 

The plan of aggrandizement which has so lately 
been realized by Bonaparte, in humbling the 
Northern powers of Europe, and partitioning 
Germany, was laid as early as the year 1793 ^^ 
Publicola Chaussard, Commissioner of the Execu- 
tive power, then said, *' It is the interest of France 
to raise herself to the rank of a first-rate power 
in Europe ; thus covering with her shield the 
second-rate powers, and protecting them against 
the boundless ambition of the Northern powers. 
A war ad internecionenii to extermination, is decla- 
red between the republic and all monarchies. 
Austria being once subdued, the Germanic body 



464 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

may become a colossus of Federative Republics, 
and change the system of the North. 

For federative republics, let us only substitute 
the Confederation of the Rhine, and we see pre- 
cisely pointed out the career which Bonaparte 
has since followed ; and the object distinctly mar- 
ked, which, after a long series of efforts, he has 
at length secured. 

In a word, the French have always been a vain, 
ambitious, fraudulent people , and have always 
abused success with the most wanton insolence, 
under every form of government. While they 
consider themselves as conquerors, no nation on 
earth is free from their aggressions ,; the only pos- 
sibility of any country obtaining tranquillity in 
peace is to impress France with a fixed conviction 
of the hopelessness of continuing the war with any 
beneficial effects ; which can only be done by 
continued hard fighting, and harassing her on 
all occasions, and in every direction." 

" The history of Europe during the last cen- 
tury amply proves the truth of this assertion, 
The peace of Ryswick was favorable to France, 
and led to a renewal of hostilities in four years. 
Defeated and humbled at the peace of Utrecht, 
she allowed Europe to enjoy tranquillity nearly 
thirty years. Victorious at Aix la Chapelle, 
her encroachments were so frequent and outra- 
geous, as to necessitate a recurrence to hostilities 
in lejss than seven years. Disappointed and van- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 465 

quished, in the celebrated (Lord Chatham's) war 
vvliich succeeded, it was with the utmost difficulty 
that, after a peace of fifteen years, she yielded to 
the temptation of separating America from Bri- 
tain. The peace of Amiens belonged to her list 
of triumphant negociations ; and it produced its 
accustomed results ; an unsettled truce, rapid and 
violent aggressions, and a precipitate rupture." 



CHAPTER VII. ' . 

But are there no drazvbacks, no counterchecks to 
the overgrown, formidable, power of France ; is 
there no canker-worm gnawing at the heart's core 
of this horrible despotism, and threatening to des- 
troy ere long its vitality ? AVe apprehend this 
to be the case. We apprehend the existence of 
certain sources of weakness and decay, both inter- 
nal and external, which, if properly managed, 
and aided by steady, determined, perpetual resis- 
tance, may yet shatter down this colossal empire 
into its original fragments, and once again restore 
the balance of Europe. 

1. The conscription system itself appears to car- 
ry the germ of death within its own bosom to 
every nation that has recourse to so unjust and 

3 O 



466 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

desperate a measure. For a time indeed it can- 
not fail to render the country which adopts it ter- 
rible to all its neighbors, on account of the vast 
superiority of numbers which it every day drags 
into the field. But what are the ultimate results 
of such a system ? 

The strength of every country consists in its 
effective population ; that is to say, the portion of 
its people which can bear arms, or perform any 
other service and labor requiring the strength of 
matured manhood. But nearly the whole of this 
effective population has been cut away in France 
by the short-sighted system of conscription, which 
has taken away almost all the males arrived at 
man's estate, in regular annual succession, ever 
since the year 1791 j the first conscription being 
levied in 1792, 

The yearly average of conscripts taken from 
the years 1792 to 1810, both inclusive, amounts 
to one hundred and .fifty thousand ; making a total 
of two millions eight hundred and ^fifty thousand 
men used up in warfare alone, independent of the 
civil massacres of the revolution, in the course of 
nineteen years. I say, all used up; because Bo- 
naparte is now clamoring for the levy of the con- 
scripts for the year 1811. 

The almost incredible mortality of the French 
soldiers may be inferred from the following ob- 
servations of the author of " Caractere des Armees 
pAiropeenes:" — " When we see these volunteers of 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 46? 

liberty dragged to the army with an iron collar 
fastened to their necks i when we consider that 
they are in great part composed of enemies to the 
government; when we reflect on the disorder, 
the waste, the misery, the maladies, and the state 
of the hospitals, which consume six times the num- 
ber of men that perish in battle ; when we see 
the soldiers incessantly on the point of mutinying, 
and sometimes freely indulging themselves in it j 
their officers, some of whom cannot even read ; 
their generals, many of whom are grossly igno- 
rant ; while several who have risen to the rank of 
commanders in chief, were originally dealers in 
thread and needles, (Jourdan) monks, (Pichegru) 
physicians, (Doppet) barristers, (Moreau) common 
soldiers, (Massena) dancers, (Muller, Victor) car- 
men, (Brune) quack-doctors, (Massot) painters, 
(Cartaux) fencing masters, (Augereau) cooks, 
Championet) &c. &c. when we see soldiers of un- 
couth appearance, and in rags, we cannot but ask 
ourselves, how has it been possible that such an 
assemblage of ragamuffins could atchieve military 
exploits of so distinguished a stamp ?" 

The proofs that the conscription- system has very 
materially drained France of her effective popula- 
tion, are manifold and conclusive. 

The very circumstance of being continually 
obliged to anticipate the conscription by at least 
two years, and thus dragging boys of only eigh- 
teen years of age into the field, shows that France 



468 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

does not possess, nor can supply, full-grown men 
in sufficient numbers to feed the gaps made in her 
soldiery by the perpetual waste and havoc of Bo- 
naparte's murderous career. 

In the reign of Louis the sixteenth, Paris alone 
by voluntary levies used to furnish annually to the 
French army six thousand men ; but now the con- 
scription, which sweeps away all the males from 
eighteen to twenty-five years of age, raises only 
fourteen hundi^ed soldiers yearly in Paris. Whence 
can this enormous deficit arise, unless the conscrip- 
tion-system has most fearfully diminished the ef- 
fective population of France ? 

Bonaparte, in all the pride of his power, when 
he marched into Spain, towards the close of the 
year 1808, had actually levied his conscripts for 
the yfear 1810 ; that is, two years in advance ; and 
yet So exhausted and drained of its effective popu- 
lation was his extensive empire, that he was obli- 
ged to withdraw his French troops from the fron- 
tiers, and send them over the Pyrenees into the 
Peninsula ; to garrison his vassal German towns 
with Russian troops, and to bring a hundred 
thousand mercenary Germans from the Rljenish 
confederation into the heart of France, in order 
to keep down the insurrection of his own oppres- 
sed and famished subjects. 

Would this sagacious conqueror have recourse 
to such a forlorn expedient, if he had any great 
numbers of disposable Frenciimen at his com- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 469 

mand ? Would he, if he could possibly avoid it, 
thus trumpet to the whole world the weakness and 
the inefficiency of his own immense empire to 
furnish him with sufficient bodies of troops, and 
masses of men to enable him to carry into full 
effect his plans of individual aggrandizement, 
and family ambition ? 

We may be well assured, that now in the fall 
of 1809, a whole year's bloody warfare in the yet 
unsubdued Spanish Peninsula, together with the 
wide-wastjng campaign against Austria, have not 
lessened his difficulty of raising men in France ; 
have not tended to heal the deadly breaches made 
in the effective population of France by the op- 
pressive and impolitic system of conscription ; the 
pernicious and debilitating effects of which the 
great nation will feel in her most vital interests 
for at least a centurv to come. 

It cannot be doubted that Bonaparte and his 
statesmen and generals are to the full as able in 
all military and political expedients and manoeu- 
vres now in 1809, as they were after the battles 
of Austerlitz and of Friedland, and altogether 
quite as eagerly desirous of obtaining universal do- 
minion as they were in the years 1805 and 1807- 
Yet after the battles of Austerlitz and of Friedland 
the French ruler covered all the circles of Germa- 
ny with his conscripts, and speedily dictated to 
the humbled Houses of Austria and of Russia, the 
treaties of Presburg and of Tilsit ; whereas now, 



470 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

after the still severer aud still more bloody battles 
of Elsinghen and of Wagram, the negociations 
for peace go tardily onward, and the Austrian ar- 
mies continue to maintain an imposing front, aud 
a menacing attitude. '.* 

It is true, that Bonaparte asserts in his thirtieth 
bulletin, dated at Vienna, July 30th, 1809, that — 
" the house of Austria took the field this cam- 
paign with sixty-two regiments of the line, twelve 
regiments of cavalry, twelve regiments of grena- 
diers, four free corps or legions, making in the 
whole three hundred and ten thousand men; one 
liundred and fifty battalions of militia, (landswhrs) 
commanded by ancient officers, exercised ten 
months ; forty-thousand men of the Hungarian 
insurrection, and fifty-thousand horse-artillery and 
miners, composing in the whole from five to six 
hundred thousand men. With this force the House 
of Austria supposed herself to be sure of victory. 
She entertained a hope of shaking the power of 
France, if ever her whole force were united. But 
her armies are notwithstanding reduced to one 
fourth of their original strength; while the French 
army has been increased to double the number it 
consisted of at Ratisbon." 

But it is no unusual affair for the French gov'* 
ernment to lie. If it were true, as Bonaparte as- 
serts in his bulletin, that Austria has lost above 
four hundred thousand men during this campaign, 
and that France has doubled the number of her 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 471 

armies in the same period, the question irresistibly 
occurs — why then has not Bonaparte immediately 
dictated the terms of peace, and prescribed a trea- 
ty to the prostrate House of Austria, as he did af- 
ter the battles of Marengo and of Austerlitz ; 
when the treaties of Luneviile and of Presburg 
proclaimed at once to the world the complete 
triumph of the victor, and the unconditional sub- 
mission of the vanquished ? 

Whence can it possibly happen, that since the 
battles of Elsinghen and of Wagram, the negocia- 
tions for peace between the two contending pow- 
ers have gone so slowly forward ; unless it be that 
Bonaparte cannot raise conscripts from the dimin- 
ished population of France in sufficient numbers 
to terrify and compel Austria into a surrender at 
discretion of all her national strength and inde- 
pendence. 

And finally, if the conscription system has not 
materially exhausted the effective population of 
France, why has not Bonaparte sent a sufficient 
number of troops into Spain to beat down all possi- 
bility of resistance on the part of the people of that 
country ? Why has he suffered the Peninsula to 
wage war against the whole military force of his 
immense empire for nearly a year and a half, and 
now to be farther off from submission to his iron 
yoke than they were in the month of May 1808, 
at the moment when they first raised the standard 
of resistance to his foul and profligate usurpation ? 



472 HINTS ON THE-JSTATIONAL 

All the intelligent Americans, of whatever po- 
litical party or calling in life, whether federalist 
or democrat, lawyer, physician, merchant, or man 
of letters, who have lately returned from the con- 
tinent of Europe, concur in stating that, in France 
and in Holland, you can scarcely meet with a)iy 
young 7ne?i i you will see old men, and boys ; old 
women, young women, and girls ; but all the 
French and Dutch young men have been consu- 
med by the system of conscription. 

When the day of retribution comes, when the 
rest of the continent of Europe, whose effective 
population has not been cut away by the inexora- 
ble, sweeping conscription-scheme, begins to re-act 
upon the intolerable tyranny and oppression of 
France, how ill-fitted will that overgrown em- 
pire of old men and slender boys be to encounter 
the rude shock of those iron times ? 

2. After the world has witnessed for so many 
years the brilliant and unparalleled victories of 
the French arms, it might perhaps appear a child- 
ish paradox, to say that the people of France are 
deficient in natural courage ; in that steady, cool, 
determined intrepidity, which finally triumphs 
over all opposition, and is terrible, even in the 
midst of disaster and defeat. 

Nevertheless, I do consider it a material draw- 
back upon the real strength of France, that her 
population does not possess this steady, desperate, 
EoiJian valor and fortitude. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C, 473 

A very celebrated French general, now resident in 
the United Slates, laid down and maintained lately 
in conversation, this broad and sweeping proposi- 
tion, namely, that fear of death, and the desire of 
self-preservation are instinctive in all animals, and 
in man are the foundation of individual cowardice ; 
so that no men oi any nation can ever be brought to 
face death coolly, particularly in large masses, ex- 
cept by the force of a discipline, which is more ter- 
rible than the instinctive fear inherent in human na- 
ture ; or, in other words, by counteracting one species 
of fear by a stronger degree of terror ; and subduing 
the/(?(2r of death in battle, by the cTr/azVi/r/ of death 
for declining to fight. Whence he concluded, that 
with the exception of some very ievi individuals, 
who might be inflamed with ambition or vanity, or 
stimulated by the dread of shame, or fortified by 
deep reflection, all nations of men are naturallrj 
coivards. 

This position was denied to be correct in all its 
unqualified latitude ; and several nations were ad- 
duced, as possessing naturally, both collectively and 
individually the characteristics of determined cour- 
age ; namely, the Americans, particularly, the peo- 
ple of the New-England states, who are particularly 
cool, self collected, and intrepid, in the hour of dan- 
ger ; the British, the ancestors of these New- Eng- 
land-men, who are naturally brave and undaunted ; 
and the distinction of old Sir Eyre Coote, the cele, 

brated Irish general, who so signally distinguished 

3 p 



474 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

himself in the East- Indies, was cited : Sir Eyre 
Coote used to say, " my countrymen the Irish, as 
well as the Scottish and the Welsh, are too hot and 
eager for action ; they rush rapidly to the charge, 
but never can be brought off from the field, never can 
be made to hear the signal for retreat, however ne- 
cessary or prudent it might be to fall back -, give me 
the ETiglis/i as the best soldiers, for they will always 
go steadily and coolly forward into the hottest ac- 
tion at the tap of a drum, and retreat in the most 
perfect order and regularity, under the heaviest and 
moet destructive fire, at the tap of a drum." The 
Russians, the Germans, the Swiss, the Prussians and 
the Spaniards were also instanced as being nations 
of brave men ; the Dutch, the Italians, the Portu- 
guese, the Chinese, and the Asiatics generally, were 
given up as being for the most part very sufficient 
cowards ; but above all, the French themselves were 
adduced as the most conclusive proof of the unsound- 
ness of the general's position in its full extent ; the 
French were quoted as a nation of brave and invin- 
cible warriors, before whose prowesi the whole world 
must inevitably yield. 

No, replied the general, whatever may be the 
case with other nations, my countrymen, the 
French, are a cowardly people ; I have had very 
conclusive and numerous proofs of that ; one of 
which I will give you ; it was one day necessary to 
break the Austrian line, I therefore ordered my ge- 
neral of division to lead his men to the charge 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 475 

with the bayonet in the first instance, and on no ac- 
count to suffer them to fire ; to my great astonish- 
ttient, instead of obeying my orders, the whole of 
the division fired before they charged with the bay- 
onet ; the Austrians however were thrown into dis- 
order, and finally routed. After the battle was over, 
I inquired of the general why he had disobeytd my 
orders ? he answered, as I led my men up to the 
charge with the bayonet, I perceived that they 
looked pale, changed color, staggered in their gait, 
and shewed every disposition to run away, while the 
Austrian line presented a firm, steady, unmoved 
front, bristling with bayonets; I therefore imme- 
diately ordered my men to fire, in hopes that it might 
disorder the Austrians, and inspire the French troops 
w ith courage ; it did both ; the Austrian line was 
broken by the fire, and my men then rushed on with 
their accustomed impetuosity to the charge. 

If this be so, how then, it was asked, has it come 
to pass that the French not being naturally a brave 
people, have every where vanquished their enemies ? 
It was answered, they have vanquished their eiie- 
nues not by superior courage : but by the superior 
genius and military tactics of their generals ; the 
immense superiority of their numbers; the greater 
skill and intrigue of their negociators ; the weak- 
ness and corruption of the governments of Germa- 
ny, Russia, Switzerland, Holland, Italy, Spain, &c. 
whose ministers and place-holders, and generals, 
were generally bought up by French money, and 



476 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

vhose lower orders of the people were almost uni- 
versally debauched by the princij.les of jacobinism ; 
and therefore opposed no hearty resistance to the 
arms of France. Over Britain, whose statesmen 
she cannot bribe, and whose seamen and soldiers 
she cannot beat, France after nearly twenty years 
of hard fighting has not gained a single advantage ; 
but lias lost an immensity of blood and treasure in 
the annihilation of her fleets, and the reduction of 
her colonies. 

Now I firmly believe every syllable of this to be 
true ; and have no doubt that the French generals 
are all well aware of the want of natural courage in 
their men ; not only from the perpetual gascona- 
ding: and childish boastina: of their bulletins and dis- 
patches, Vkhich is incompatible with real valor, but 
also from their constant anxiety always to engage 
the enemy with the advantage of an immense su/jei'i'- 
oriti) of mimbei^s on their own side. 

And not contented with fighting the enemy in 
more numerous bodies than are opposed to them, 
they generally contrive to post a fresh army a {ew 
miles in the rear of their antagonists, who are thus 
inevitably destroyed if they happen to be routed by 
the attack of the French in front. Bonaparte prac- 
tised this manoeuvre with the most fatal success at 
the battle of Jena, where with more than double the 
number of his opponents he, after a very hard fought 
conflict, succeeded in putting the Prussians to the 
rout, and the fugitives were nearly all slain, or taken 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C, 477 

captive by the French army stationed about twenty 
miles in the rear of the tield of battle ; and the Prus- 
sian monarchy was extinguished at one tremen- 
dous blow. 

The same experiment was tried by Marshal Victor 
lately upon the British at Talavera ; he attacked 
with sixty- thousand Frenchmen Sir Arthur Welles- 
ley who had only twenty- five thousand men under 
his command ; while Marshal Souit was posted 
about eighteen miles in the rear with twenty thou- 
sand men. The manoeuvre however failed, because 
the British beat the French, and drove Victor back 
beyond the Alberche; and when Sir Arthur Welles- 
ley fell ba; k for want of provisions. Marshal Soult 
finding that the English army, instead of being in 
full and disorderly flight towards Lisbon, after sus- 
taining a thorough defeat, were regularly retreating 
to a better provisioned part cf the country, he carried 
his troops off out of the British line of march as fast 
as possible, and made a junction with Victor. 

It would be absurd and childish in the extreme, 
to deny the meed of most extraordinary and tran- 
scendant talents to Bonaparte and his generals ; 
for nothing less than very superior genius and 
courage could possibly have borne them upwards 
to their present "bad eminence," amidst the 
crowds of competitors for power and rapine, at a 
period when all the intellect of a numerous and 
ingenious people was let loose by the French re- 
volution to struggle for mastery and dominion. 



478 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

And these astonishing talents have more than 
compensated the want of natural courage in their 
men. 

A conclusive proof of the reluctance of the 
French to join the armies of their imperial tyrant, 
is found in the following observations taken from 
the very interesting and important Review of the 
*' Code de la Cojiscription,'' so abundantly indebted 
to on a former occasion. 

" It is impossible even to glance at this volume 
without being struck with the extreme anxiety 
which these statutes betray, to enforce conform- 
ity, both in the executioner and the victim. The 
enumeration of cases is so complete as to pre- 
clude the possibility of evasion. The public 
functionaries have their respective provinces 
most accurately marked out ; and are furnished 
Vf\ih A\s\\nci for muLe {or every act of office. The 
severest and most unrelenting punishment is in- 
flicted upon all, who from negligence, or corrup- 
tion, or pitjs give countenance to the slightest 
relaxation. 

The diseases which give right to exemption, are 
detailed with a jealous and disgusting minuteness. 
Precautions are multiplied without number, to 
secure the persons of the conscripts ; and while 
they are decorated with the title of " Defenseurs 
de lapatrie,'' the uniform tenor of these laws, and 
the tone of bitter reproof which pervades them, 
afford conclusive evidence of a general aversion 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 479 

from the trade of war j and serve to convince us 
that these Achilleses are iiot easily roused to arms, 
whatever enthusiasm they may afterwards display 
in the field. 

The eighty-first page of the Code de la Conscrip- 
tioiii contains a proclamation, dated in the year 
1800, of General Le Febre, commander of the 
fifteenth and seventeenth military divisions. It 
commences in this way. 

^' To the Conscripts. 

'* The proclamations, the invitations, which 
have been made, to induce you to re-enter ihe path 
of honor, have not produced the effect which 
might have been expected. You have been deaf 
and insensible to the paternal measures of the 
government in your behalf. I forewarn you, on 
its part, that those which it will in future take, 
will be terrible. The conscripts who shall not 
have returned to their post by a time about to be 
prescribed, will be punished as cowardly deser- 
ters ; plunderers of the military stores ; enemies to 
their country. The public force will drag them 
from their most secret hiding-places. It will 
make it a duty to expel from society vile men who 
dishonor, &c. &c." 

Le Febre is now Duke of Dantzig, and em- 
ployed in the work of blood in Spain. The style 
of his proclamation reminds us of a letter addres- 
sed to the Cominune of Paris \x\. 1794, by one of 



480 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

his co-adjutors. General Laval, who then com- 
manded a body of French troops at Manheiai, 
and is now at the head of the troops of the Confede- 
ration of the Rhine. 

" I command before Manheim. We continue 
to ravage the rich country of our enemies. We 
leave them nothing but their eyes, to weep. Live 
the Republic. We are all sans-culottes generals 
in name and effect. We adore Thee, O Saint 
Guillotine, who hast performed miracles ; and 
art more effectual than a hundred thousand men s 
ga ra, ga ira ! Live the Mountain !'' 

Some few provisions are introduced into the 
conscription-code, on the subject of voluntary 
enlistments ; but as no bounty is allowed, it is evi- 
dent that they do not enter into the serious consid- 
eration of the government. The old compromise 
between the military exigencies, and civil con- 
stitution of the state; between the effeminacy of 
the rich, and the wants of the poor ; between the 
ambition of the sovereign, and the rights of the 
subject, is rejected with disdain by the imperial 
republic ; and the student is relentlessly dragged 
from his closet, and the peasant from his hiding- 
place, by an indiscriminating and unqualified 
coercion. 

But habit soon renders submission, if not cheer- 
ful, at least easy ; rapine furnishes sources of mu- 
nificence and conciliation ; courage becomes a 
virtue oi necessity y strength is acquired by dis- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 481 

cipline ; military ardor kindles with competition, 
and experience too fatally proves, that from such 
elements armies may be compounded, alike for- 
midable for discipline and valor." 

To the truth and correctness of all this we most 
cordially assent ; but although discipline may 
compel, and the intoxication of frequent success 
inflame cowards to fight; yet in case of a reverse 
of fortune, the feelings of nature will return, and 
the fear of death, and the desire of avoiding pain 
will triumph over all the exhortations of their 
generals to fight. And accordingly no nation 
bears successive defeats so ill as the French, who 
ran like sheep on every occasion, after the first 
few conflicts in Italy, before Suvarof and his in- 
trepid Russians. 

Unfortunately for the repose of the world, of 
late years, the soldiers of France, particularly 
when commanded by Bonaparte in person, have 
not been accustomed to defeat, although they are 
at present occasionally receiving lessons in that 
salutary school, under some of his best generals, 
from the Spaniards and the British in the Penin- 
sula. 

3. In addition to these two sources of internal 
weakness, France labors under another still more 
alarming evil, namely, the decay, the rapid de- 
struction of her productive industry, which is cut 
up by the roots under the despotism of her ty- 
rant. 

3 Q. 



482 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

Until lately, that is to say, until Bonaporte, by 
his blockading edicts of Berlin, Milan, and Bay- 
onne, compelled the British government to retali- 
ate upon him with their Orders in Council, France 
enjoyed the benefit of an uninterrupted commu- 
nication with every part of the world, by means of 
neutral conveyance, and sent all her manufactures 
and staple commodities to the most advantageous 
markets without let or hinderance. 

This vast source of internal prosperity and 
wealth is now dried up. She expo?'fs as well as 
imports nothing. And if her manufacturers can 
find no foreign vent for their goods, they must 
cease to manufacture, and be reduced to extreme 
distress. If the cultivators of her soil can find no 
foreign demand for their produce : if their wine, 
brandy, corn, and oil, remain unsaleable, the ten- 
ant will be unable to pay his rent to the land- 
holder ; and both tenant and landlord will be alike 
unable to contribute their accustomed quotas to 
the exigencies of the state. 

Her agriculture, thus discouraged and diminish- 
ed, is left to be languidly carried on by the feeble 
hands of old men, of little boys, and of women, 
whose sons, fathers, husbands, and brothers, the ra- 
pacity of the conscription has dragged to slaughter 
in the army. The manufacturers thrown out of em- 
ploy have no other resource than quietly to starve 
and perish in honor of their imperial master Bo- 
naparte the Great. The merchants whose occu- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 4S3 

pations are also destroyed, must live upon their 
Utile capitals, and then, when they are consumed, 
likewise perish. 

The total darkness and ignorance of all moral 
duty, and of all general knowledge, together with 
the universal misery and penury, which are every 
where so industriously spread over the whole sur- 
face of this immense empire, must not only ren- 
der the inhabitants barbarous, but materially 
check the progress of population, by curtailing 
the means of subsistence, and thus dry up the 
fountains, whose streams are perverted to supply 
the incessant cravings of the Corsican for men, 
to execute by the prodigal waste of human life 
his projects of ambition. 

How then is France to continue to raise funds 
vi^ith which to carry on her extensive schemes of 
subjugation ? Hitherto she has wrung her sup- 
plies from taxes on her own people far more op- 
pressive than those borne under the old monarchy; 
from requisitions on her friends and allies ; from 
the pillage and rapine inflicted on the countries 
which she has vanquished, and ft'om withdrawing 
the scanty pittance, which in the early days of the 
revolution had been allowed to the hospitals in 
lieu of their estates which she had confiscated and 
sold. 

France, while she withholds the interest of her 
debt, even of that thii^d portion of it, which was 
all that she would allow to be national, is forced 



484 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

every year to confess enormous deficits in her an- 
nual revenue below the amount of her annual ex- 
penditure. The continuance of this tyrannical 
system must necessarily dry up the channels of 
revenue; for plunder and rapine lay waste the 
soil, instead of reaping the present and providing 
for future harvests. 

I purposely omit now all consideration of the 
public revenue being diminished by the resistance 
of oppressed, or the despair of ruined provinces. 
I merely ask, from ivlial sources her finances are 
to be supplied, provided even that she experience 
no great and sudden reverse of fortune ? 

The inexhaustible mines of South America are 
no longer at her disposal ; the objects of taxation 
in France herself are few, precarious, and unpro- 
ductive, on account of the drooping and decayed 
condition of her agriculture, manufactures, and 
commerce. 

But, say a very large portion of politicians, — 
" while Britain totters on the verge of bankrupt- 
cy and ruin ; while she is loathsome in her mani- 
fold corruptions ; and humbled by her fears and 
her frequent defeats ; France is reneiving her youth 
and vigor, happy under the auspicious dominion 
of her mighty emperor, invincible in arms, and 
commanding all the wealth of Europe to flow in 
exhaustless streams into her public treasury." 

No doubt France has, from the first, used the 
most unjust and oppressive means to acquire 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 485 

property ; and has always made cruelty and ex- 
tortion the two main pillars of her financial system. 
She began very early to seize the capital of her 
happy people, and after it had been sold to revo- 
lutionary purchasers, the next crop of French ru- 
lers seized it a second time, under pretence that 
the buyers were royalists ; or in fact, because they 
themselves chose to take the property. In a word, 
every change of government in France brought a 
vast portion of the capital of the nation into th3 
public exchequer. 

This new and ingenious system of finance, our 
modern p<iiitical philosophers consider as the per- 
fection of human wisdom, the ultimatum of all 
dexterity in the art of government ; and conse- 
quently, to use their own words, " France is of all 
nations the richest in resources," because she can 
spend all the stock of the country ; and then seize 
the new holders of property ; and spend and con- 
fiscate, and confiscate and spend, as often as the 
exigencies of the state or the will of the govern- 
ment might require. 

By a formal decree all the property aad all the 
men in France have been declared to be in a state 
of requisition, and disobedience to this decree has 
been punished with the death of the offender, or 
the confiscation of his property. But violence 
can never be more than a temporary resource. It 
destroys the means of reproduction, so that plunder 
cannot yield a long succession of crops. France 



486 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

is now destitute of credit and of revenue ; she 
cannot get property in sufficient abundance to 
supply her enormous expenditure, from her oum 
subjects. And if she looks abroad to Holland, to 
Italy, to Germany, they can yield her little or 
nothing, because she has already gleaned and ra- 
ked those fields of rapine clean, by her long con- 
tinued extortion, and recent contributions. 

The French government is fond of holding out to 
its people the example of Republican Rome, who 
maintained her armies by the plunder of foreign 
states for more than one hundred years, without tax- 
ing the Roman citizens ; whence the French people 
are desired to inf<=^r, that they also shall soon cease 
to pay taxes, when their emperor can wholly subsist 
his troops upon the pillage of the remainder of the 
world. 

But, in the first place, the Roman armies at that 
time were less numerous and far less expensive than 
those of France are now ; and secondly a great part 
of the plunder found its way into the public treasu- 
ry, which was carefully and parsimoniously adminis- 
tered by the government of Rome. Whereas the 
present French armies are not only far more numer- 
ous and expensive, but also very little pillage of the 
European continent can escape through the gripe of 
the numberless generals, princes, governors, minis- 
ters, commissaries, and all the countless hordes of 
public and private harpies of France, into the impe- 
rial exchequer. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, v^C. 487 

France plunders Europe, and Bonaparte plun- 
ders France; and the whole pillage of exhausted 
and famished Europe cannot satisfy the rapacity, 
or supply the prodigal waste of his minions, and sub- 
ordmate tyrants. How is he to bear the enormous 
expenditure of keeping an army of seven or eight 
hundred thousand men on foot ; besides all the 
charges of his civil government, his public function- 
aries, his police, his myriads of spies at home and 
abroad ; and all the long catalogue of expenses ne- 
cessarily incident to a jealous and despotic govern- 
ment always liable to the huge destruction of fraud 
and confusion ? 

The expedients to which France has already re- 
sorted, prove her extreme difficulty to raise money 
sufficient to meet her expenditure. She has issued 
paper, which speedily became of no value; she has 
sponged her old debt, and stopped payment of her 
new debt ; she has sold above a hundred millions 
sterling of confiscated property ; she has pillaged all 
her own banks; she has squeezed the Jews and 
money-brokers ; she has robbed all the churches of 
popish Europe; she has plundered the Dutch, the 
Swiss, the Italians, the Prussians, the Germans gene- 
rally, the Austrians, the Spaniards, and the Portu- 
guese ; and is at this moment unable to find funds 
even nearly sufficient to supply her expenditure. 

Bonaparte may now, like Augustus, send forth a 
decree ordering all the world to be taxed ; but all 
that part of the world which is under his dominion 



488 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

has not wherewithal to pay taxes. For they can 
only rise from the yearly reproduction of income, in 
consequence of agricultural, manufacturing, and 
commercial industry, which the ravages of war, and 
the oppression of French despotism, have nearly des- 
troyed all over the continent of Europe. 

The Corsican is committing the old solecism of 
tyranny, in willing the end, and destroying the 
means necessary for the accomplishment of that end. 
The plundering system prevents the means of repro- 
duction by the gieat waste of property which it oc- 
casions J and also by deterring industry from all ex- 
ertion, owing to the cutting away of all security of 
person and property. Bonaparte, by destroying all 
commercial and manufacturing industry, only inca- 
pacitates the European continent from supplying it- 
self with the necessaries and conveniences of life; 
and, thus creates an increased demand for British 
manufactures, which must be bought and used with- 
in his own dominions, or a very large portion of his 
own loving subjects must become, and continue in 
name and effect, veritable sans-culottes. 

Add to all this, that despotism has uniformly a 
tendency to grow continually weaker by its own 
corruptions. Already the throne of Bonaparte is 
surrounded by parasites and flatterers, minions, and 
court-favorites of all descriptions. The men of gi- 
gantic talents, who have forced themselves upwards 
during the revolution, must after a while disappear; 
and the jealous exclusive policy of the Corsican is 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 489 

not likely to appoint any very able successors to 
their offices of trust or profit. 

From the Literary Panorama, a work extremely 
valuable for the purity of its religious tenets, the 
soundness of its political principles, and the variety 
of its information ; the following facts respecting the 
internal condition of France are taken. I refer to 
the number for August 18U9, p. 1006 — 1011, which 
has just now reached this country. 

" Things are greatly altered in France since Bona- 
parteMate unprincipled attack upon Spain audits 
royal family. His first progress to Bayonne was 
marked by at least some shew of joy and respect ; as 
it was supposed both in France and Spain, that he 
merely intended to overthrow the detested authority 
of the prince of peace. But after the massacres of 
Madrid, and the imprisonment of the royal family, 
his remorseless treachery became glaring ; his most 
intimate associates, even Talleyrand and Joseph, are 
reported to decidedly disapprove of his conduct ; the 
gloom which pervaded the whole French nation, 
convinced him that he had outstepped the limits 
even of his military despotism, and that the people 
only wanted the courage and liberty to veat their 
execrations aloud. 

On his first return to Bayonne from the castle of 
Merac, whence had issued his dark and bloody 
mandates, he was struck with the gloomy silence 
which made itself to be every where felt j and was 
heard to exclaim repeatedly with violent agitation, 

3r 



490 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

" Oft diroif que fe?ifre dans une ville Espasnole i 
" One would think that I am entering a Spanish 
town." The same reception awaited him at Bor- 
deaux ; and indeed along the whole road leading 
back to his capital. 

The violent measures, and the ruinous consequen- 
ces which have attended the Spanish and German 
wars, have added much to the general disaffection. 
Lampoons, placards, and pamphlets, exposing all 
his crimes are industriously circulated every where, 
even in churches and in schools ; and the pohce is 
more active in suppressing the works than in ostejisi- 
bly seeking the authors ; but nighrly arrests are more 
numerous noio in Paris, than at any time since the 
reign of RobespinTe. 

Even rumors, though in themselves idle, tend to 
discover the general opinion entertained respecting 
the virtue of the Corsican, and glance at the proba- 
ble duration of his power. For instance, it is gene- 
rally reported that the infants of Spain have bet n 
poisoned; that Bonaparte's temper is becoming 
every day more and more irascible ; that the fits of 
epilepsy, or falling sickness or morbus com itia lis, to 
which he (in common with his great predecessor in 
the career of victory Caius Julius Cassar) is subject, 
now return twice a week; and that he himself is 
convinced of his fortune being on the wane. 

We do not however infer from all this that the 
Frejich are ready to break the yoke from their own 
necks ; they are completely tamed into servitude ; 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 491 

they have been so long sunk to the very dregs of 
insensibility, it is so long since they have enjoyed 
philosopliical liberty, that threadbare cloke of the 
most loathsome slavery, that fetters alone can fit 
their limbs. 

But should fresh misfortunes occur, perhaps some 
opposition might be made to that administration of 
gov»;rnment which entails curses, and only curses up- 
on tiie whole empire of France. 

The cojucription doubtless is the greatest evil 
which presses upon the French : a fresh levy is daily, 
expected. In the mean time, young men who have 
already furnished subslitufes^ are compelled to 
march, with that accustomed violation of all faith, 
which so conspicuously distinguishes the present gov- 
ernment of France. To avoid the rigor of the con- 
scription, in the first instance, is almost impossible; 
but the conscripts desert in large bands from the ar- 
my to the interior whenever opportunity offers; par- 
ticularly from the army of Spain. 

The Pyrenean mountains, and the Landes, at this 
time swarm with French conscripts, who prefer liv- 
ing as outlaws, until they can find an opportunity of 
re-entering their country unnoticed, to serving in 
Bonaparte's army. To such extremity of wretched- 
ness can men be reduced by despotism, that natural 
infirmities are improved down to the standard fixed 
by law, as a security against conscription ; among 
other instances, weakness of sight is purposely matu- 
red into purblindness, by the gradual and constant 
use of magnifying glasses of high powers. 



492 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

These repeated drafts upon the most precious 
part of the population of the country, have been 
already severely felt in various branches of its po- 
litical economy ; and have materially depreciated 
the value of landed property in France, which 
from the draining of the effective population, 
want of a market, and of capital, weight of taxes, 
and other causes, is now reduced to one-third of 
the value that it commanded during the short 
peace of Amiens ; both in the price which it fetches 
and the produce which it yields. 

The measure of corn which at that time sold 
for twenty-four livres^ scarcely now linds a purcha- 
ser at ten livres ; although no augmentation has 
taken place in the quantity produced. The situ- 
ation of the proprietors of vineyards, especially 
in the south, is truly deplorable. Not one crop 
since the year 1802, has paid even the expense .of 
cultivation ; and the present owners cannot pos- 
sibly maintain their estates much longer. Bona- 
parte tendered them a loan of three millions of 
livi^es i but this money costs them eight per cent. 
interest, which their imperial broker requires for 
the use of his property ; and their wines are 
pledged for the payment ; are taken from under 
their management, and lodged in the govern- 
ment ware-houses, where they are mostly spoiled 
from mismanagement, and are then sold by the 
government agents for what they can fetch. 

The produce of the following year, and after- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN^, &c. 493 

wards the land itself, are answerable for any defi- 
ciency. These are intolerable hardships upon 
the individuals aggrieved ; but they form a part 
of the plan which Bonaparte pursues, namely, to 
effect, by the total ruin of thousands, a temporary 
cheapness of corn, to supply with ease, his nume- 
rous armies ; and also by the distresses of the an- 
cient land-owners, to throw the landed property 
more entirely into the hands of the revolutionary 
upstarts, who are naturally devoted to his fortunes ; 
and who, by the low prices of land, are induced to 
make considerable purchases ; and thus, through 
the desire of preserving their newly acquired 
estates, to become an additional guarantee of his 
ill-gotten power. 

The taxes of France are also enormous ; the lan- 
ded property, though so much reduced in value, 
is burdened with a direct tax of one-sixth part of 
the supposed revenue ; this of course is paid whether 
or not any revenue has been received, and it is at 
present, in most instances, a tax upon landed capi- 
tal. This proportion is to be considerably aug- 
mented when the Cadastre is completed. The 
Cadastre is an invention of the French economists ; 
it is a survey by measurement of the whole sur- 
face of the country ; fixing the boundaries of 
property; and specifying the nature and value of 
each plot of ground. 

Considerable progress has been made in this 
immense work, which is intended as a guide to the 



494 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

land-tax ; and in some districts, where it is actu- 
ally completed, lands have been rated according 
to tlie value which they bore in 1789; that is to 
say, at three times their present value. 

Besides this, indirect taxes have been augmented 
both in the amount of duty laid, and in the num- 
ber of objects subjected to taxation. Indeed few 
articles have escaped an impost. The Gabelle, or 
salt duty, one of the great grievances complained 
of at the beginning of the revolution, which was 
then only partial, is now extended throughout the 
wAo/e of France, to its full amount. 

The augmentation of turnpike duty ; the estab- 
lishment of a toll on all boats of every size, plying 
up and down navigable rivers ; and the augmen- 
tation of the duties paid on country-produce upon 
its introduction into towns, the only markets, 
have tended still farther to beat down the progress 
of agriculture, by impeding the circulation of its 
produce. 

By all these absurd and oppressive means, how- 
ever, the French government raises a considera- 
ble revenue ; and also gains at least the outward 
attachment of a vast number of individuals who 
are employed in collecting it. In the general 
wreck of fortunes, these places are eagerly sought 
by men who regret the loss of better days ; and 
who have now no other means of keeping out star- 
vation, than by accepting a beggarly pittance, 
earned in the service of the usurper. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 495 

The commerce of France is reduced to mere 
dealings with the government, and to some bold 
adventures, mostly by shares, in the East and 
West-India trades, and in privateering. Even 
inte7^7ial commerce is at a stand, from the bustle 
of war, the requisition of beasts of draught and 
carts for the armies, the state of the roads, and 
the various duties on land and water-carriages. 
Notwithstanding the scarcity of colonial produce, 
its price has lately been reduced, owing to the 
want of demand occasioned by actual penury. 

Refined sugars sell now iov Jive livres a pound; 
brown, of inferior quality, iov ffty- five sous. As 
a succedaneum for this article, in some of the wine 
districts, they make a kind of syrup by boiling 
down the unfermented juice of the sweet grape ; 
which sells as high as twenty sous a bottle. The 
root of the wild endive, notwithstanding its bitter- 
ness, furnishes a substitute for coffee ; the bark 
of the horse-chesnut tree replaces the want of Pe- 
ruvian bark, &c. &c. Indeed the remembrance 
of Robespierre's reign of terror will reconcile 
the French to a?iy misery short of death by actual 
famine. 

Those who have still some capital left, and 
which cannot be employed in trade, vest it in 
Monts de PiHc^ which are extensive pawn-bro- 
kers* shops, authorized by the government in all 
large towns ; and in which money brings twenty 
per cent, at least : all other kinds of money-lending 



496 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

are completely at an end. The discount of bills 
is a mere matter of accommodation, confined to a 
very few monied men ; and the rate is accordingly 
very low ; generally under five per cent. 

The combined operation of all the causes which 
destroy the other branches of productive industry 
in France, cripples also the progress of its manu- 
factures, namely, the universal pressure of despo- 
tism J the total insecurity of person, property, and 
life ; the deficiency of mercantile capital ; the 
conversion of the learning hands into soldiers j 
and all the other injurious effects of tyranny and 
war. The conscripts, taken from the reputable as 
well as the lower classes, fill the ranks of the army. 

Whateverof skill, taste, or refinement, the youth 
of this order of society may possess ; whatever of 
science they may have acquired superior to the 
knowledge of the merely operative laborer ; all 
perish with them in the field of blood. Whence 
the prodigious losses sustained by France on the 
banks of the Danube, and in the Spanish peninsu- 
la, must be estimated far above the mere numeri- 
Cfl'/loss in lives, although that be indeed immense ; 
it cuts away persons and families who might be 
justly deemed the strength of the nation, in intel- 
lect, as well as in exertion ; and if their commer- 
cial or manufacturing capital fall to their mothers 
and sisters, of what use will it be, in such hands, 
to the state ? 

Nevertheless, the manufactures have suffered 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 497 

comparatively less diminution than most other de- 
partments of industry in France; owing chiefly 
to their having the exclusive supply of the hooie- 
market; whence their produce, of whatever quali- 
ty, always finds a ready sale. Substitutes have also 
been found for the principal foreign raw mate- 
rials ; as for the dyeing drugs, and cotton. 

Extensive plantations oi herbaceous cotton have 
succeeded well in Italy, particularly in the king- 
dom of Naples; although the want of seed has 
somewhat checked their progress. These planta- 
tions are all under the management of Frenchmen, 
who receive every kind of encouragement ; the 
cotton is bought before hand by the principal 
French manufacturers ; the staple is finer than 
was expected, and spins to no. 150. 

Yet manufactured goods of every kind are enor- 
mously dear ; the necessities of the population, 
though lessened by misery, are only scantily sup- 
plied ; nor need Britain fear the rivalship of French 
manufacturers, while they labor under their pre- 
sent want of capital ; and are liable to the drafts 
of the conscription. They now vegetate on a hot- 
bed, with a melancholy luxuriance, rendered con- 
spicuous by surrounding desolation ; but could 
not stand a single moment before the rough blasts, 
of a free trade. 

Nothing can more pointedly prove the present 
wretched state of France, than the eagerness with 
which people of the middle classes of society seize 

3 s 



498 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

the opportunity of leaving it. Bordeaux now 
scarcely vec\iox\s^fifty thousand^ instead oi 2i hundred 
//z«M5-<772af inhabitants, its number in the year 1789. 
At the first news of the partial raising of the 
French embargo, a kw weeks since, people, gath- 
ering together the little, miserable wrecks and rem- 
nants of their fortunes, in all the sea-ports, applied 
for passports, which are not refused except to 
young men liable to the conscription. They prin- 
cipally come to these United States, the only coun- 
try at present free from the calamities of war. A 
single American vessel, the Hope, a few days after 
its arrival in the Garonne, had collected upwards 
of forty passengers, half of whom were women." 

4. In addition to these internal checVs to the for- 
midable power of France, may be reckoned the 
external drawbacks to her force, from the deadly 
hatred which is borne against her by all the nations 
whom she has vanquished and oppressed; namely, 
all the immense population that is spread over the 
rest of the European continent, amounting to more 
than a hundred millions of souls. 

No one in his senses will assert that France pos- 
sesses the same permanent power and influence 
over the countries whom she has vanquished, as 
she exercises over her own ancient dominions. 
Germany, Prussia, Austria, and Italy, whom she 
has humbled, but not subdued, exceed her in the 
number of people and of soldiers. Their humilia- 
tion has roused in their hearts every passion of 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, kc. 499 

pride, hatred, and vengeance; terrible emotions, 
which the rapacity and insolence of Bonaparte will 
perpetually fan into a fiercer flame. The differ- 
ence of habits, manners, character, language, and 
condition, oppose insuperable barriers to their 
union with, and incorporation into, one and the 
same people with the French, all obeying one 
sovereign lord, 

" In Italy more particularly the incorporation 
of the people into the same mass with his other 
subjects, is irresistibly opposed by the universal 
hatred of the inhabitants against the French ; the 
obstacles to all improvement in the prejudices, the 
indolence, the ignorance, the cowardice of the 
natives; the headstrong and injudicious nature of 
Bonaparte's civil administration; his own tyran- 
ny ; the rapacity of his officers ; the embezzle- 
ment of the public property in every department 
of the French government ; and a general system 
of arrogance, rapitie, and oppression, which con- 
demns to misery the population of this delightful 
country, and imposes silence by the bayonet on 
thejust complaints of the oppressed victims." 

These countries, therefore, instead of cheerfully 
aiding France in the farther prosecution of her 
schemes for universal dominion, will continually 
hang as a dead weight, an immense drag-chain 
round her neck ; and be always earnest to seize 
the first opportunity of re-asserting their national 



500 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

independence, and inflicting signal vengeance 
upon their oppressors. 

It is the natural tendency of every separate na- 
tion to press onward to the furtherance of its own 
power and aggrandizement; and in the present 
condition of Europe, the now humbled and op- 
pressed nations will necessarily bind themselves 
together in one common bond of suffering, rage, 
and hatred ; and the moment that they can com- 
mand any resources of power and resistance, will 
direct them in deadly opposition against France. 

These attempts will be very much forwarded by 
the debilitating etfects unavoidably entailed upon 
the Great Nation by her present unnatural state 
of society, which cannot possibly be permanent. 
The very attempt to prolong this pernicious state 
of things; the sacrifice of all peaceful prosperity, 
and all individual comfort ; the annihilation of ag- 
riculture, and commerce ; the substitution of an 
armed nation in the room of a regular army ; 
would infallibly in a short time reduce France to 
a wilderness. 

It should also be remembered, that if Bonaparte 
happens to be defeated in his plans of personal 
and family aggrandizement, he cannot look for aid 
to the loyalty and affection of the French people 
whom he has cruelly oppressed. They, wearied by 
their enormous burdens, and exasperated at the in- 
dividual, the selfish ambition of their tyrant, may 
possibly prepare for him that fate, which awaited 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 501 

the late Great Idiot of all the Russias, and is now, 
perhaps, preparing for his no less infatuated and 
feeble successor. 

Hovr far the alliance of France blesses a country 
may be seen in the following picture of the pre- 
sent condition of Holland^ drawn by the hand of 
an illustrious British statesman, who at this mo- 
ment strengthens and adorns by his energy and 
wisdom the councils of his sovereign. 

" Having had the means of very accurate infor- 
mation, I feel justified in expressing a decided 
opinion on this important topic. My reasoning 
is the result of experience and observation. Hol- 
land exhibits in every feature of her national 
character the effects of long commercial habits. 
Accustomed forages to pursue trade and reap its 
comforts, her people possess the care, temperance, 
and regularity, consequent upon the discipline of 
industry ; but they are devoid of energy or enter- 
prise. 

Her soldiers, and even her sailors, are raised 
only in a small proportion from her own popula- 
tion. Westphalia, and the other adjoining parts 
of Germany, supply recruits for her army, and the 
landmen of her navy. Even the seamen, whether 
in the public or private shipping, are not in gen- 
eral, native Yyvxic\\men, but from the north of Ger- 
many, from Denmark, and from Sweden. Of the 
men who fought off Camperdown, and so brave- 
ly maintained the former fame of Holland, only a 
small proportion were Dutch. 



502 HmrS ON THE NATIONAL 

With respect to the army, Guelderland, a pro- 
vince comparatively inconsiderable, is the only 
source of supply. There exists not a nation more 
destitute of military habits, or possessing less apti- 
tude to acquire them. The Dutch would not rise 
in active opposition to an invading foe, from a 
greater dread of the horrors of internal war, than 
of their present subjection. Whatever be their 
expectations from a force sent to deliver them, or 
whatever the tyranny of their oppressors, //iej/ will 
act a neutral part. • 

" Individual safety is a Dutchman's object ; and 
from that no consideration, except downright com- 
pulsion, can make him depart. The people of HoU 
land are divided into two political parties, apparently 
so equal in numbers and influence, that it is a matter 
of extreme difficulty to decide which of the two 
really possesses that superiority which is claimed by 
both. The highest and lowest classes are in general 
devoted to the Orange family ; while the middle 
ranks constitute the popular party. The middle 
orders are attached to the French ; the higher and 
lower classes as far as commercial jealousy will al- 
low, to the English. 

This division has subsisted nearly two hundred 
years. Its spirit is hereditary ; imbibed from the 
earliest period of life ; and retained with the charac- 
teristic pertinacity of the Dutch. So rooted is at- 
tachment to the Orange family in the minds of its 
adherents, that while that House possesses a repre- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. S503 

sentative, no succession of revolutions, no variety of 
new constitutions, will eradicate it from their 
breasts. 

Yet such are the habits and disposition of the peo- 
ple, that, notwithstanding this strong predilection, 72a 
active co-operation in the work of their deliverance 
is to be expected from them. In the year 1794, 
when the French approached their frontier, and 
threatened the overthrow of all that was dear to the 
Orange party, there was made no exertion of indivi- 
dual patriotism ; no voluntary levies ; no pecuniary 
subscription. The hired troops of the Republic, 
(Swiss and Germans) were left to fight, unaided^ 
the battles of the state. 

And in the year 1799, when the successes of the 
campaign had been entirely on the side of the allies j 
and the prince's party had the strongest motives, 
from the prospect of success, as well as congeniality 
of feeling, to cooperate with the invading army, it 
is notorious that they afforded not the smallest as- 
sistance. 

The republican party partakes equally of the 
national apathy. Their leaders however have the 
benefit of whatever movement can be communicated 
to this languid mass by the machine of government. 
In the year 17§<5, after the French invasion, a num- 
ber of the citizens attached to the democratic side 
were formed into volunteer corps. These, in the 
event of invasion, would be marched out against the 
assailing force. Thev would take the field from the 



504 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

necessity of obeying orders ; but although numer- 
ous, they are so inefficient, in a military point of 
view, that it is not under-rating the measure of their 
exertions to say that the addition of Jive-thousand 
regular soldiers to the invading army would be an 
adequate provision against the whole annoyance to 
be expected from the collective body of Dutch vo- 
lunteers. 

The foreign commerce of Holland is at its lowest 
ebb of diminution and decay. A war with England 
is the signal for the Dutch flag to disappear from iho 
ocean. Their West-India colonies fall an easy con- 
quest to the British arms ; and their trade with the 
east, formerly the pride of Holland, and the admira- 
ration of the universe, is carried on by the limited 
and hazardous system of neutral flags. That por- 
tion of intercourse which the Dutch still maintain 
with other countries in Europe, is transacted in the 
same precarious manner. Their internal trade and 
manufactures are in a state of correspondent ruin ; 
and the whole country is undergoing a most serious 
diminution, not only of wealth, but also of popula- 
tion. 

In the frst book, and ninth chapter, of that inva- 
luable work, " The Nature and Cause of the Wealth 
of Nations," Doctor Smith lays down this important 
principle ; namely, *' the diminution of the capital 
stock of the society, or of the funds destined for the 
maintenance of industry, as it lowers the wages of 
labor, so it raises the profit of stock, and consequent- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 505 

ly the interest of money." The profound and lumi- 
nous author quotes, in support of this principle, great 
fortunes suddenly acquired in the ruined countries of 
Bengal, and the other British settlements in the 
East-Indies. 

This principle also receives an exemplification in 
the present state of Holland. It was easy for- 
merlv to borrow money there at an interest of four, 
but now it is nearly impossible to procure it at five 
per cent. Yet the increased profits of stock do 
7iot tend to alleviate the burdens of the few Dutch 
capitalists that are still left, owing to the greater pro- 
fit on capital augmenting the whole income of the 
capitalist. 

For the diminution of stock in all societies is at- 
tended with the most ruinous consequences to the 
country at large. The capitalist sustains his share 
in the general calamity ; he obtains a higher rate 
of interest, but his capital is less secure; he there- 
fore dares not in prudence either lend or employ the 
whole. The hazards of trade are multiplied by the 
increased number of failures. He suffers from this 
cause directly, if he trade himself j or indirectly, 
through the instability of his debtors, if he lend his 
capital to others ; he therefore does not employ the 
whole, either in trade or upon loan. 

Upon the invasion of Holland by the French, a 
large proportion of capital was hoarded. The 
practice of general hoarding, indicates a situation 
the reverse of prosperous, both in the individual 

3 T 



506 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

and in the country. By a total loss of profit, 
therefore, on a part of his stock, the capitalist, 
notwithstanding the increased rate of interest on 
the remainder, derives much less income from his 
whole property in times of public calamity. 

In speaking of Bengal, Doctor Smith mentions, 
" that the great fortunes so suddenly and so easi- 
ly acquired in it, and the other British settlements 
in the East-Indies, may satisfy us that as the wa- 
ges of labor are very low, so the profits of stock 
are very high in those ruined countries. The in- 
terest of money is proportionably so. In Bengal 
money is frequently lent to the farmers, at forty, 
fifty, and sixty per cent." 

If this was the state of India thirty or forty 
years ago, it is noxo materially altered. The usual 
interest of money there at present is from ten to 
twelve per cent. The fortunes said to have been 
made in that country have, both in Dr. Smith's 
days and our own, been much over-rated. If their 
origin be investigated, it will be found more fre- 
quently in the official situation of the individual in 
the East-India Company's service, than in the le- 
gitimate profits of trade. 

These fortunes have generally been acquired 
by men who were strangers equally to the prin- 
ciples and the habits of commerce ; presents from 
the natives, or the possession of monopolies, will be 
found in the history of British India to have been 
a more fruitful source of fortune than industry. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 50? 

The nature and progress of such acquisitions, 
therefore, have been regulated by causes very dif- 
ferent from the rules of political economy. 

It must be apparent that the state of society in 
Bengal and Holland is extremely diiferent. In 
Bengal, property was formerly very insecure, and 
trade confined to a small number. In Holland, 
property was sacred, and trade the universal oc- 
cupation. No two countries can differ more wide- 
ly in the gifts of nature. The fertile soil of Ben- 
gal supplies, with the returning season, a harvest 
abundant both for the industrious husbandman 
and his rapacious master. But Holland, bereft of 
commerce, would lose that which alone renders 
her territory valuable. Her coast would be re- 
duced to a barren asylum for fishermen ; and her 
interior would become a dreary marsh. 

The ruinous effects of diminished capital would 
therefore be far more grievously felt in Holland, 
where commerce was both so generally prosecu- 
ted, and so indispensable to the prosperity of the 
country. There, as in Britain, and in every tra- 
ding country, a great part of business was trans- 
acted upon credit^ which is so important an instru- 
ment in mercantile operations, that in many 
branches of trade the amount of stock or capital 
ceases to be the criterion of the extent either of 
business or of profit. 

In Britain a longer or shorter term is taken 
for the payment of almost every purchase, and 



508 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

credit is as essential to trade, in its present state, 
as the atmosphere to our existence. The Dutch, 
farther advanced in their commercial career than, 
the English, more abundant in money, and less 
accustomed to speculative enterprise, transacted 
more business by immediate payments. But even 
in Holland, credit was the soul of commerce. 

A foreign conquest, a revolution, but above all, 
their wars with England, have exceedingly les- 
sened the mutual confidence of the Dutch mer- 
chants. By the interruption of her intercourse 
with the East and West-Indies, Holland is depri- 
ved of the most extensive and lucrative branches 
of her trade. The ruin of almost all the public 
funds of Europe, except the British, is also a fatal 
blow to the Dutch who had lent out a large por- 
tion of their stock to foreign powers. Their in- 
ternal trade suffers under a universal diminution 
of consumption. 

This complication of disasters has continued to 
press upon Holland for about fifteen years. And 
the consequences have been, the emigration of a 
large proportion of her population ; and despon- 
dency in those who have remained. Peace alone 
can preserve to them what they still possess, and 
peace is the prayer of every Dutchman. But in 
the present state of Europe there is no prospect of 
any pacification which can restore the national 
independence of Holland. It may procure a lit- 
tle partial relief from her burdens ; but it will also 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 509 

confirm her degradation, and rivet upon her neck 
the chains of French despotism. 

The late and present taxes of the Dutch bear a 
very large, but not a 2iniform ratio, or per centage 
upon their property. The ratio varies in differ- 
ent years i and instead of being more easily paid 
by the remaining capitalists, in consequence of the 
ruin and emigration of their countrymen, its pres- 
sure is by that cause exceedingly augmented. 
The measure of taxation in Holland has long been, 
not a 'just regard to the inhabitants, but the un- 
avoidable necessities of the state. 

The French prescribe to the Dutch the main- 
tenance of an extensive military and naval estab- 
lishment; or the payment of a direct contribu- 
tion to themselves; for these, and the interest of 
their immense funded debt, provision must be 
made. It is therefore the amount of their burdens, 
not the ratio of taxation which is certain. The ru- 
in and emigration of a number of capitalists, and 
the consequent diminution of the national stock, 
increases very much the proportion of taxation on 
the remaining individuals. A sum certain, and 
of large amount, must be paid ; the smaller the 
national property, the fewer the contributors, so 
much greater must be the ratio of contribution ." 

The following official document will also show 
the ma?iner in which the French display their pro- 
tection and kindness to their friends and allies. 

Note from Count Wintzingerode, Minister of 



510 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

State and Conferences to his Serene Highness the 
Elector of Wirtemberc^, to his Excellency, M. 
Didelot, the French Minister, dated 30th Septem- 
ber, 1805. 

" The undersigned is under the necessity of giv- 
ing to M. Didelot official communication of an 
event the most unexpected, aud of an outrage the 
most unheard of, against the capital of his High- 
ness, the Elector, by Marshal Ney. 

" Having appeared before the gates of Stutgard, 
not only with the intention of passing through it, 
but of taking up his quarters there. General Hin- 
zel, the commandant, went himsef to the gates, 
and endeavored by the strongest representations, 
showing at the same time the positive orders to 
that effect of his Highness, the Elector, to prevail 
on him to follow the conducting officers posted 
on all the roads, made to preserve the communica- 
tions round the town, and to facilitate the march 
of the French troops to all quarters to which they 
were destined. 

*' But Marshal Ney, rejecting all proposals of 
the kind, and refusing to accept of any compro- 
mise, ordered his guns to be pointed against the 
gate leading to Louisburg, compelled it to be 
opened, entered the capital of his Highness, the 
Elector in a hostile manner, with a force so consi- 
derable that the town was not capable of contain- 
ing it. He ordered the magistracy to assemble 
for the purpose of communicating to them that 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 5\\ 

two regiments of hussars and five battalions of in- 
fantry would arrive there the same night ; for 
which he made an immediate and peremptory 
demand of one hundred thousand rations of bread. 

*' The undersigned is at a loss for expressions 
to convey the deep regret of his Highness, the 
Elector, as well as the just indignation which he 
must necessarily feel, at the grievous and unheard 
of insult which has been offered to him in his own 
capital, at the moment that the Emperor Napo- 
leon makes professions oi friendship to him ; and 
flatters him with the prospect of soon seeing him 
at his palace. 

" P. S. At this instant, the undersigned has 
received official information from Baron De Tau- 
ben heim, first Equerry to his Highness, the Elec- 
tor, that some hussars, acting as body-guards to 
General Dupont, have forced open the doors of the 
principal stables of the Elector, and wounded with 
a sabre one of the servants who endeavored to 
prevent this violence. One of the Elector's coach- 
men, dressed in Ids livery^ and driving M. Didelot, 
attached to the French Embassy, received also 
some blows with the flat of a sword. Upon com- 
plaint being made of the breaking of the stable 
doors, by Baron De Taubenheim to the aid-de- 
camp of General Dupont, the only answer he re- 
ceived was, " It is all the same to me." 

I had almost forgotten to mention that the prac- 
tice of hoarding specie prevails very generally 



512 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

among the Dutch farmers in the union, and more 
especially among those who reside at the town of 
Bergen, in New-Jersey. The head of a family 
scrapes together all the silver dollars which a life 
of industry and parsimony enables him to accu- 
mulate ; these he locks up in his strong box, 
where they remain until his death, when they are 
brought to light and divided equally among his 
children, if there be more than one ^ and each of 
these children puts his or her share into a separate 
strong box, to remain until his or her death shall 
make another division. If there be only one 
child, the strong box remains in its place unopen- 
ed, and receives constantly fresh accessions of 
dollars, until its possessor is quietly entombed, 
and a division of the spoil among a new race of 
Dutch people is called for. 

But this custom among our Dutch farmers is 
no objection to the position above laid down : 
" that the getieral practice of hoarding is indica- 
tive of want of national prosperity; as particular- 
ly applicable to the present state of Holland." 
For our Dutch farmers who hoard, make only a 
very small portion of the community, and do it 
through mere ignorance of the benefit which would 
accrue to them from 2/si?ig instead of bitri/ing their 
money; and as the American community is pro- 
tected by equal laws, and an upright administra- 
tion of justice, the small quantity of specie which 
is thus withdrawn from circulation is easily sup- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. .513 

plied by the issues of bank-paper, which commer- 
cial credit at once requires the banks to emit and 
enables the trader to obtain. Whereas in Hol- 
land, where there is jio security for property, and 
jw upright administration of justice, the practice 
of hoarding is made general through fear of be- 
ing plundered, and the inability of advantageous- 
ly employing capital in the investments of trade, 
or in loans ; and the money thus withdrawn from 
circulation is not supplied by any increased'*^ssue 
of bank-paper, for which there is little or no de- 
mand, on account of the almost entire annihila- 
tion of commercial credit, together with the ruin 
of trade. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

But, without peradventure, the greatest and 
most effectual check to the destroying career of 
France, is to be found in the resources and the pow- 
er of Britain. Of her industry and wealth, her pub- 
lic credit, and all the vast resources of her collec- 
tive and individual property, we have taken occa- 
sion to speak ; it only now remains to make a 
brief inquiry into the state of her population 3 as 

$ U 



It 14 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

to its capacity of intelligence, and of courage to 
keep the common enemy of mankind at bay. 

A very strange notion is entertained by many 
persons in these United States, that the popula- 
tion of Britain is very scanty and limited. One 
would be led to infer, from their discourses and 
writings, that Britain could number no more in- 
habitants within her territory than are to be found 
within the precincts of our little states of Dela- 
w^are or Rhode-Island. A very respectable gen- 
tleman, in this city of New- York, very gravely 
informed me yesterday, " that Britain could not 
afford to part with any of her population ; and 
that if they were to lose ten thousand men, she 
would feel it severely for many years.** 

The population of Britain was returned in the 
year 1801, in pursuance of an act of Parliament, 
41 Geo. 3d, as amounting to sixteen millions, Jive 
hundred and ten thousand. 

England and Wales, .... 10,710,000 

Scotland, 1,500,000 

Ireland, S,«00,000 

Maritime and military popula- 
tion, exclusive of India and 

foreign corps, 500,000 



Total population of the 

British Isles, . . . 16,510,000 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 515 

But this return very materially under rates the 
population of Britain. The truth is, that owing 
to the novelty, and the difficulty of taking an ex- 
act census, the returns to Parliament were very 
defective. A belief had been very industriously 
propagated by the British Jacobins, that an enu- 
meration of the people was about to be made, for 
the purpose of laying a heavy poll-tax on all the 
inhabitants, and of drafting all the males capable 
of bearing arms into the militia, or regular troops. 

This belief, or some other cause, operated so 
powerfully as to induce almost every district ia 
the kingdom to give in a much lower estimate 
of its population than the actual amount. At 
that time 1 had occasion to travel through many 
of the counties of England and of Scotland ; and I 
was peculiarly struck with the uniformly careless 
manner in which the assessors collected their ac- 
count of the number of people within their res- 
pective districts. 

In Edinburgh and Glasgow, it is not uncom- 
mon for several distinct families to live upon the 
separate flats, or compartments under the same 
roof. An assessor would go to the door of the 
lowest flat, and ask how many people lived in it ? 
Whatever was the answer, down he wrote it, with- 
out farther inquiry. He then proceeded to ask 
who lived upon the second flat, and how many 
there were in the family ? the answer sometimes 
was, I dinna ken , well, how many do you guess f 



516 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

the guess was made at random, and forthwith 
written down as a correct return. A very judi- 
cious and respectable gentleman of the city of 
Edinburgh asked several of his neighbors why they 
had given in some only half^ others Iwo-third^^ and 
others different proportions of the whole number 
of their inmates ? The reply invariably was, why 
they tell me that all the young men are to be ta- 
ken away for soldiers. 

Throughout the country the same carelessness 
in taking the census prevailed. It is notorious 
that the population of Ireland, instead of being 
tinder fourt is nearly, if not quite, i-zo: millions. I 
am therefore inclined to rate the people of Britain 
at nearly o?i€ fourth more than the returns in 1801 
gave ; proportioning them thus : 

England and Wales, .... 12,000,000 

Ireland, 5,800,000 

Scotland, 2,200,000 



Total British population, 20,000,000 

The qualify of these twenty millions of popula- 
tion is also known to be far superior to that of 
most other countries in Europe. The testimony 
of Mr. Malthus in his incomparable Essay on 
Population, vol. 2, p. 512, is conclusive as to this 
point. 

" The effective population in Britain, compared 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 617 

with the whole, is considerably greatei'- than in 
Frimce; and she not only can, but does employ a 
larger proportion of her population in augment- 
ing and defending her resources, than her great 
rival. According to the Statisliqiie generale et par- 
ticuliere de la France, lately published, the propor- 
tion of French population under twenty, is almost 
nine-tzventieths ; in England it is not much more 
than seveii-twentieths. 

Consequently, out of a population of ten mil- 
lions, England would have a million more of per- 
sons above twenty than France ; and would have 
at least tJn^ee or four hundred thousand more males 
of a military age. If the population of Britain 
were of the same description as that of France, 
it must be increased numerically by more than a 
million and a half, in order to procure from Eng- 
land and Wales the same number of persons 
above the age of twenty as at present. And if 
she had only an increase of a million, her efficient 
strength in agriculture, commerce, and war, would 
be in the most decided manner diminished ; while 
at the same time, the distresses of the lower classes 
would be dreadfully increased. 

Cart any rational man say, that an additional 
population of this kind would be desirable either in a 
moral or political point of view ? And yet this is the 
kind of population which invariably results from 
direct encouragements to marriage; or from that 



518 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

want of personal respectability which is occasioned 
by ignorance and despotism " 

It should be remembered that the population of 
Britain has suffered very little diminution on ac- 
count of the war, because, until very lately, her 
fighting has been chiefly confined to the ocean ; a 
mode of conflict in which she seldom loses many 
men, although she generally sweeps the quarter- 
decks of her enemies clean. Indeed, her popula- 
tion for the last twenty years, has been considerably 
augmented ; her births having averaged a much 
greater proportion than her deaths. 

The British population, from being better fed, 
clothed, and lodged than that of any other country 
in Europe, is more hardy and robust ; stronger and 
more active; and will endure more fatigue and hard 
fighting than any other Europeans. This is pecu- 
liarly exemplified in the seamen of Britain, who will 
manage their ship, and work their guns, with more 
dexterity, strength, and speed, than any of their 
enemies can do. 

Indeed, the naval explloits of courage, strength, 
and skill, displayed by the British for the last fifteen 
years, more nearly resemble the achievements of 
romance, than the ordinary exertions of human 
valor; and the names of Howe, of Duncan, of Jar- 
vis, and of Nelson, will shine with increasing lustre 
in the annals of fame " to the last syllable of record- 
ed time." There are, now, and always will be, in 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 519 

the British fleet, while its present admirable system 
of discipline remains, many Howes, Duncans, Jar- 
vises, and Nelsons, who only wait for an opportuni- 
ty of exhibiting their genius and heroism at the ex- 
pense of the enemies of their country. 

Nor are the British soldiers inferior in valor to 
their naval brethren ; although it is the common 
belief that they are defective in that discipline, and 
those military tactics, which are all-important to 
render courage effectual. It is supposed that Biitain 
does not sufficiently exercise her land-armies in ac- 
tual warfare ; at least we have two great leading 
authorities as to this point, namely, the author of 
" Caractere des Armees Europeennes," and Mr. 
Burke. 

Tiie French writer repeatedly maintains the posi- 
tion that " the English are undoubtedly the most in- 
trepid people in Europe." — " Les Anglois sont indu- 
bitablement le peuple le plus intrepkk de 1' Europe ; 
celui qui affronte la mort, et la voit approcher, avec 
le plus de sangfroid et d'indifference." But the 
British army is not sufficiently attended to by the 
government, which adopts no regular system for 
its formation, and the disposition of the forces em- 
ployed in actual service ^ whence the military de- 
partment can never acquire consistency or unifor- 
mity. 

The cavalry of Britain is better equipped and 
more terrible in its charge than that of any other 
nation. Her artillery is equal to that of the; 



520 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

French themselves. Indeed nothing but able 
commanders are wanting to make the British the 
best troops in Europe. The British officers how- 
ever are not considered as inferior to those of any 
European army, in courage, in talents, or in mili- 
tary ardor -, but only in military tactics, for want 
of practice. 

In France military knowledge has always 
been widely diffused, and in consequence she has 
triumphed over all her enemies. The French wri- 
ters upon military subjects are the best in the 
world i but in England not one author of any 
talent in this department has appeared. If proper 
encouragement had been given to military studies 
in Britain, she would no doubt have shone in that 
as she does in other great intellectual pursuits. 
There is no one department of science or of art, 
which both nations have cultivated, in which the 
British have not excelled the French." 

I think Voltaire, somewhere in his hundred 
volumes without an index, observes that the cli- 
mate of England produces men of more physical 
strength of body, and of minds more patient than 
the natives of France, in like manner as the soil 
produces better horses and better hunting dogs. 

Mr. Burke, in the 8th volume of his works, 
London edition, p. 369 — 37<5, strenuously insists 
upon the necessity of Britain's employing her 
land-army more frequently and more extensively 
than she has of late years donej and thus giving 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, kc .321 

the bravest people in Europe the fair and free use 
of their valor. 

" In turning our view from the lower to the 
higher classes of Britain, it will not be necessary 
to show at any length that the stock of the latter, 
as to numbers, has not yet suffered any material 
diminution. There is no want of officers for the 
ships which she commissions, or the new regi- 
ments which she raises. In the nature of things 
it is not with their persons, that the higlicr classes 
principally pay their contingent to tlie demands 
of war. There is another and not less imp(jrtant 
part which rests with almost exclusive weight up- 
on them. They furnish the means 

-How war may, best upheld, 



Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold, 
In all her equipage. 

Not that they are exempt from contributing 
also by their personal service in the fleets and ar- 
mies of their country. They do contribute in 
their full and fair proportion, according to their 
relative numbers in the community. They con- 
tribute all the mind that actuates the whole ma- 
chine. The fortitude required of them, is very 
different from the unthinking alacrity of the com- 
mon soldier or common sailor, in the face of dan- 
ger and death. 

3 X 



522 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

Their fortitude is not a passion ; it is not an. 
impulse ; it is not a sentiment ; it is a cool, stea- 
dy, deliberate principle, always present, always 
equable ; having no connexion with anger ; tem- 
pering honor with prudence ; incited, invigorated, 
and sustained by a generous love of fame ; inform- 
ed, moderated, and directed by an enlarged know- 
ledge of its own great public ends, flowing in one 
blended stream from the opposite sources of the 
heart and the head ; carrying in itself its own. 
commission, and proving its title to every other 
command, by the first and most difficult command, 
that of the bosom in which it resides. 

It is a fortitude which unites with the courage 
of the field the more exalted and refined courage of 
the council; which knows as well to retreat as to 
advance ; which can conquer as well by delay as 
by the rapidity of a march, or the impetuosity of 
an attack; which can be, with Fabius, the black 
cloud that lowers upon the tops of the mountains ; 
or, with Scipio, the thunderbolt of war; which 
undismayed by false shame, can patiently endure 
the severest trial that a gallant spirit can under- 
go; in the taunts and provocations of the enemy; 
the suspicions, cold respect, and mouth-honor of 
those from whom it should meet a cheerful obe- 
dience ; which undisturbed by false humanity, can 
calmly assume that most awful moral responsibi- 
lity of deciding, when victory may be too dearly 
purchased by a single life; and when the safety 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 523 

and glory of their country may demand the cer- 
tain sacrifice of thousands. 

Different stations of command may call for dif- 
ferent modifications of this fortitude; but the 
character ought to be the same in all. And never 
in the most paluiy state of Britain's martial re- 
nown did it shine with brighter lustre, than in 
the present sanguinary and ferocious iiostilities, 
wherever her arms have been carried. 

But in this most arduous and momentous conflict, 
which from its nature should have roused the British 
nation to new and unexampled efforts, she has never 
put forth half the sfj^eng'ii^ which she has exerted in 
ordinary wars, in the fatal battles, which have 
drenched the continent with blood, and shaken the 
system of Europe to pieces, Britain has never had 
any army of a magnitude to be compared to the 
least of those by which, in former times, she so glo- 
riously asserted her place, as protector, not oppres- 
sor, at the head of the great European common- 
wealth. 

She has never manfully met the danger in front -, 
and when the enemy, resigning to her, her natural 
dominion of the ocean, and abandoning the defence 
of his distant possessions to the infernal energy of 
the destroying principles, which he had planted 
there for the subversion of the neighboring colonies j 
drove forth by one sweeping law of unprecedented 
despotism, his armed multitudes on every side, to 
overwhelm the countries and states that had for cen* 



o24 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

turies stood the firm barriers against the ambition of 
France; Britain drew back the arm of her military 
force, which had never been more than /ia//*rawf/ 
to oppose him. 

From that time she has been combating only with 
the other arm of her naval power ; the right arm of 
England, I admit ; but which struck with blows al- 
most unresisted, that could never reach the heart of 
the hostile mischief. From that time, without a 
single efi'ort to regain those outworks, which ever till 
then she had so strenuously maintained, as the 
strong frontier of her own dignity and safety, no 
less than of the liberties of Europe; with but one 
feeble attempt to succor those brave, faithful, and 
numerous allies, whom for the first time since the 
days of her Edwards and Henrys, she then had in 
the bosom of France itself, Britain has been intrench- 
ing, and fortifying, and garrisoning herself at home ; 
has been redoubling security on security, to protect 
herself from invasion, which had then , first become 
to her a serious object of alarm and terror. 

I believe that any person, who was of an age to take 
a part in public aftairs forty years ago, would hardly 
credit his senses, when he should hear from the high- 
est authority, that an army of two hundred thousand 
men was kept up in England, and in the neighbor- 
ing island at least fourscore thousand more. 

But when he had recovered from his surprise on 
being told of this army, which has not its parallel; 
what must be his astonishment to be told again, that 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 5^5 

this mighty force was kept up for the mere purpose of 
an inert and passive defence; and that in its far 
greater part, (the militia) it was disabled, by its con- 
stitution and very essence, from defending her against 
an enemy by any one preventive stroke, or any one 
operati n of active hostility? 

What nv.ist Ins reflections be on learning further, 
that a fleet of five hundred men-of war, the best ap- 
pointed, and to the full as ably commanded as Bri- 
tain ever had upon the sea, was for the greater part 
employed in carrying (Mi the same system of unefi- 
ierprising defence ? What must be the sentiments 
and feelings of one who remembers ihe former ener- 
gy of" England, when he is given to understand that 
the British Islands, with their extensive and every 
where vulnerable coast should be considered as a 
garrisoned sea-town ? 

Wliat would such a man, what would anij man 
think, if the garrison of so strange a fortress should 
be such, and so feebly commanded, as never to make 
a sally ; and that, contrary to all which has been 
hitherto seen in war, an infinitely inferior army, with 
the shattered relics of an almost anndiilated navy, 
ill-found, and ill-manned, may with safety besiege 
this superior garrison ; and without hazarding the 
life of a single man, ruin the place merely by the 
menaces and false appearances of an attack ? 

Indeed, indeed, I look upon this matter of Britain's 
defensive system, as much the most important of all 
considerations. It has oppressed me with many 



526 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

anxious thoughts, which more than any bodily dts- 
temper, have sunk me to my present enfeebled con- 
dition. But 1 only mean here to argue, that this 
mode of conducting the war on the part of Britain, 
has prevented even the common havoc of war in her 
population ; and especially among that class whose 
duty and privilege of superiority it is, to lead the 
way amidst the perils and slaughter of the field of 
battle." 

" And surely, after such an elaborate display 
of the injustice and insolence of an enemy, who 
seems to have been irritated by every one of the 
means, uhich had been commonly used with ef- 
fect to sooth the rage of intemperate power, the 
natural result would be, that the scabbard in 
which Britain had in vain attempted to plunge 
her sword, should have been thrown away with 
scorn. It would have been natural, that rising 
in the fulness of their might, insulted majesty, 
despised dignity, violated justice, rejected supplica- 
tion, patience goaded into fury, would have pour- 
ed out all the length of the reins upon all the 
wrath which they had so long restrained. 

" It might have been expected that the British 
Minister, at length convinced that there is a cour- 
age of the cabinet full as powerful, and far less 
vulgar than that o{ ihe afield, would have changed 
the whole line of that unprosperous prudence 
which hitherto had produced all the effects of the 
blindest temerity. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 52? 

On that day, it was thought he would have as- 
sumed the port of Mars ; that he would bid to be 
brought forth from their hideous kennel, where 
his scrupulous tenderness had too long immured 
them, those impatient dogs of war, whose fierce 
regards affright even the minister of vengeance 
that feeds them ; that he would let them loose in 
famine, fever, plagues, and death, upon a guilty 
race ; to whose frame, and to all whose habits, 
order, peace, religion, and virtue, are alien and 

abhorrent. 

" It was expected that he would at last have 
thought of active and effeclual war ; that he would 
no longer amuse the British Lion in the chase of 
mice and rats ; that he would no longer employ 
the whole naval power of Britain, once the terror 
of the world, to prey upon the miserable remains 
of a peddling commerce, which the enemy did not 
regard, and from which none could profit. It was 
expected that he would have re-asserted the jus- 
tice of his cause ; that he would have re-animated 
whatever remained to him of his allies ; and en- 
deavored to recover those whom their fears had 
led astray; that he would have re-kindled the mar- 
tial ardor of her citizens ; that he would have held 
out to them the example of their ancestry^ the as- 
serter of Europe, and the scourge of French am- 
bition; that he would have reminded them of a pos- 
terity, which, if this nefarious robbery, under the 
fraudulent name, and false color of a government, 
should in full power be seated in the heart of Eu~ 



5'i8 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

rope, 77itist be forever consigned to vice, impiety, 
barbarism, and the most ignominious slavery of 
body and mind. 

" In so holy a cause it was presumed that he 
would liave opened all the temples; and with 
prayer, with fasting, and with supplication (bet- 
ter directed than to the grim Moloch of Regicide 
France) have called upon the British nation 
to raise that united cry which has so often stormed 
heaven \, and with a pious violence forced down 
blessings upon a repentant people. It was hoped 
that when he had invoked upon his endeavors the 
favorable regard of the Protector of the human 
race, it would be seen that his menaces to the ene- 
my, and his prayers to the Almighty, were not fol- 
lowed, but accompanied with correspondent ac- 
tion. It was hoped that his shrilling trumpet 
should be heard, not to announce a show, but to 
sound a charge." 

Since the time that Mr. Burke preferred this in- 
dignant and most eloquent complaint against the 
military inactivity of Britain, her armies have been 
called, by circumstances, or the superior energy of 
her government, or by both, into more extensive and 
more active service. And the conduct, both of her 
commanders and of her men, has amply justified 
Mr. Burke's eulogium on their skill and valor, and 
has sufficiently vinrlicated the soundness of his politi- 
cal wisdom. The recent achievements of tiie Bri- 
tish arms in Egypt, at Maida, in Portugal, and in 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 529 

Spain, incontestibly prove, that the descendants of 
those heroes who covered themselves with laurels on 
the fields of Cressy, of Poictiers, of Agincour., of 
Blenheim, of Ram'llies, and of Malplaquet, have in 
no wise degenerated from their ancestors, either in 
military genius, or determined intrepidity; and that 
the names of Abercromby, of Stuart, of Moore, and 
of Wellesley, shall be inscribed on the tablet of hon- 
or to the latest posterity, with those of Edward, of 
Henry, and of Marlborough. 

I cannot deny myself the gratification of making 
one little extract from Mr. Moore's very interestmg 
and important account of his hereic brother's cam- 
paign in the Spanish peninsula in 1808 — 9; for a 
full description of the battle of Corunna on the l6th 
of January, 1809, in which the British so conspicu- 
ously displayed their superiority in military tactics 
and cool determined intrepidity, over Bonaparte's 
ablest generals, and the choicest veteran troops of 
France, see p. 204 — 224 of Mr. Moore's work. 

" The British army thus arrived at Corunna en- 
tire and unbroken; and in a military point of view 
the operation was successful and splendid. Nearly 
seventy thousand Frenchmen, led by BonapartCy 
with a great superiority of cavalry, had endeavored 
in vain to surround or to rout twenty six tJwusand 
British. Two hundred and Jifty tniles of country 
had been traversed ; mountains, defiles, and rivers 
had been crossed, in daily contact with their enemy, 

3 Y 



650 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

Though often engaged, even their rear-guard was 
?iever beaten, nor thrown into confusion ; but was 
vicforimis in every encounter. 

Much baggage, undoubtedly, was lost ; and some 
three-pounders were abandoned ; but nothing was 
taken by force. What was left was owing to the 
death of waggon- horses and mules, and not to their 
escort ever being defeated. The courage and me- 
nacing attitude maintained by the cavalry and re- 
serve, were sufficient always to repel and over-awe 
the advanced guard of the enemy ; and at Lugo bat- 
tle was offered by this handful of B* itish to three di- 
visions of French, commanded by their marshals. 
1 his challenge was declined i and the impression 
which it made, enabled the British to terminate 
their march almost undisturbed. 

In fine, neither Napoleon nor the duke of Dal- 
matia won a piece of artillery, a standard, or a sin- 
gle military trophy from the British army." 

Then follows a most interesting account of the 
battle of Corunna^ to which I have only leisure and 
opportunity earnestly to refer the reader. It is also 
but barely justice to netice that the conduct of Sir 
Arthur Wellesley, now Lord Wellington, in Portu- 
gal and in Spain, both before and since his splendid 
victory at Talavera, over more than double tlie num- 
ber of French assailants, has been such as to rank 
hmi among the very greatest captains of this military 
age, so fruitful in distinguished generals. For a 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 53\ 

most dignified encomium on the great military 
genius and heroism of Lord Welhngton, and of tl»^ 
officers and men under his command, see the Ge?i' 
era/ Order on this subject, published by command 
of his Britannic Majesry. 

It is indeed most earnestly to be desired that 
Britain will from hence forward keep a?i army 
perpetually ujloat ; and either carry offensive and 
deadly h/>stility into the heart of the enemy's 
country; Uiy waste his long line of seacoats, 
and reduce ll ».u a bancu wilderness; will strip 
him of all his foreign possessions, and capture 
every island in the seas, and rivers, and creeks, 
and bays, from which troops may be continually 
detached to harass and annoy his dominions; 
and give him the full benefit of obstinately protrac- 
ting a war with the greatest naval power that the 
world ever saw. 

But if Britain ever again coops herself up in a 
narrow, paltry, merely defensive system, she may 
bid an eternal adieu to the martial glory of her 
ancestors ; she will lessen the power and lower the 
spirits of her brave and loyal people; and will 
be ultimately obliged to tamely submit to the 
most degrading terms of surrender which her in- 
solent and unprincipled enemy may think fit to 
dictate. 

For nearly twenty years past it has been the 
fashion with the French to deny all talent of aiiy 
kind to Britain ; and a very large body of politi- 



532 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

cians in these United States, in whose opinion all 
the assertions of France are the decrees of oracu- 
lar truth and wisdom, make no scruple of daily 
and hourly avowing, in discourse and in print, that 
"the whole British nation are a set of drivtLlers 
and idiofSy feebler than children in their understan- 
ding, and weaker than woinen in their cowardice ; 
at once the scorn and hatred, the contempt and 
the detestation of every civilized people upon 
earth," he. &c. 

I have, however, a, iiiucli more formidable an- 
tagonist to cope with on this subject than the il- 
lumined statesmen just quoted. In the tenth vo- 
lume of the Edinburgh Review, p. 10 — 27, it is 
aigued with great force and ingenuity, that not 
enough of the real talent which Britain possesses, 
is ever called into the service of the government, 
owing to the extreme monopoly of power by the 
great leading families of the aristocracy of rank 
and wealth. The consequences of this monopoly 
of office I shall state in the words of the Reviewer. 

•'In the tirst place, all the great and important 
offices of the slate are virtually monopolized by a 
few great families. Provided there be any mem- 
ber of those families possessed of talents to dis- 
charge their duties in a decent and passable man- 
ner, a clann is sure to be made in their behalf; 
and from the nature of the government that 
claim is almost sure to be successful. The na- 
ture of the government indeed, and the weight of 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 533 

the opposition by which it is always confronted, 
renders a certain degree of talent in these privi- 
leged candidates indispensable. 

In this respect Britain has the advantage of the 
continental governments of Europe. Her chief 
places cannot be given away to persons utterly 
incapable of their duty ; but still the qualifica- 
tions required by her in a candidate properly re- 
commended, are undoubtedly very slender, and 
beyond all question, much lower than might be 
required, and could be obtained, if the competi- 
tion were free and general, a.nd if success were the 
sure reward of superior qualification. 

The second bad effect is, that persons whose 
natural genius and dispositions would ensure the 
very highest excellence in many important de- 
partments, are deterred from cultivating those ta- 
Jents, or bringing them forward into public no- 
tice, from the consciousness that they do not pos- 
sess that political influence which is necessary to 
give them effect ; or from despair of obtaining 
those recommendations, without w^hich no success 
is to be expected. Much admirable talent is 
thus suppressed for want of encouragement ; and 
minds that might have redeemed or exalted the 
age or the country to which they belonged, 
have wasted their vigor in obscure and ignoble 
drudgery. 

The last consequence is, that those who possess 
the power of nominating to high offices, being 



534 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

thus habitually beset with applications from quar- 
ters to which they are forced to pay attention, 
cease to think of any other functionaries than 
those who come so recommended, and make no 
exertion to discover or bring forward those talents 
by which alone the exigencies of the country can 
be supplied in seasons of great difficulty. 

These reasons are nearly sufficient to account 
for the fact, that Britain, though containing in the 
mass of its population a far greater proportion 
of intelligence and just principle than any other 
that ever existed, has not generally conducted 
herself with any extraordinary or consummate 
wisdom as a government, but has often commit- 
ted, or persisted in the errors, which a narrow 
and a vulgar policy had imposed upon the least 
enlightened of her neighbors. 

It is natural to think that the highest talents 
should be found where there is the greatest re- 
ward, and the greatest field for their exertion; and 
in a free country especially, it seems necessary 
to explain how a system should have arisen, which 
precludes the state from availing itself of the ge- 
nius and the wisdom of its subjects; and prevents 
the people from interfering to save themselves by 
the fair application of the talents and the sagacity 
they possess. 

France has triumphed by the free and unlimited 
use she has made of the talents of her people ; but 
the people of England are at this moment much 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 533 

more enlightened and ingenious, and capable of 
atFording more efficient service to their govern- 
ment than those of France, or of any other coun- 
try. If a similar field was opened for competi- 
tion ; if the same high rewards were held out for 
excellence ; and the same facilities afforded for its 
publication and display, we are perfectly satisfied 
that England would in a very short time exhibit 
more splendid instances of successful genius, in 
every department of the public service, than have 
yet been produced among those (the French) who 
have risen to such a height by their multiplication." 
I can readily imagine that the gentleman, who 
is capable of writing such an able state-paper 
as that from which the above extract is taken, 
must, amidst the ordinary occupations of life, and 
amidst the daily intercourse of ordinary men, 
whether professional or not, " droop like the 
melancholy eagle amidst the meaner domestic 
fowls j" (to use an expression of Mr. D'Israeli.) 

" With ruffled plumes, and flagging wing, 

Quench'd in dark clouds of slumber lie 

The terrors of his beak and lightning of his eye." 

For no one possessed of primary and comman- 
ding talents, can long remain unconscious of 
their power ; they must be every moment forcing 
themselves upon his notice, either in common 
collisions of intellect with men around him, or in 
silent, solitary study, when he compares the writ- 



53d HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

ten labors of others with his own more profound 
and comprehensive reflections. It is therefore no 
wonder that a man so gifted with exalted ajenius, 
so armed at all points with information, should 
sigh at, what must indeed appear to him, wasting 
his vigor in obscure and ignoble drudgery ; no 
wonder that he should earnestly desire to guide 
the helm of State, as much better fitted for his 
nervous grasp than the pen of a Reviewer. 

Yet with the most unfeigned respect, I in some 
measure venture to dissent from the conclusions of 
this admirable writer. 

1. That a high bounty is perpetually offered for 
the greatest talents in general science, arts, and 
literature, speculative and practical, by the vast 
patronage, both private and public, of wealth and 
honor in Britain ; and that this demand, in conse- 
quence, has produced the most splendid exertions 
of genius and knowledge in these intellectual pur- 
suits, is not disputed. But it is urged that iiot 
enough of this great talent finds its way into the 
actual service of the government. 

Now a veri/ Large portion of talent and informa- 
tion must always be employed in carr\nng on the 
administration of such a very complicated system 
of government as that of Britain; which unites 
great energy of action in itself, with a very ample 
extent of personal liberty to its subjects ; in direc- 
ting the vast naval and military departments ; in 
managing the Parliamentary troops, and the estab- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C* 537 

lished national church ; in guiding the landed, 
maiuif.icturing and commercial interests; in con- 
tending with an incessant and formidable opposi- 
tion of wealth, rank, influence, and talent, 
against ar// its measures, right or wrong; from the 
most important, down to the least significant of 
its transactions. 

2. It is easier to guide a machine already made, 
and the uses of which are known, than to make the 
machine and set it in motion. A well-established 
government, like that of Britain, does not require 
«// its highest talents to be crowded into the ad- 
ministration. Having grown up in the habits, 
affections, and feelings of the people, its business 
can be regulated and energetically carried onward 
by the superintending genius of a few great men 
to guide its primary movements, and mtn of de- 
cent respectable talents to execute its subordinate* 
functions. 

The residue of its greatest and most comman- 
ding talents would be most advantageously em- 
ployed in diffusing the lights of science, of art, and 
of literature over the whole community. I should 
be very sorry to seethe whole vast body of talent 
which now guides the career of the Edinburgh Re- 
view, pressed into the actual service of the British 
government, unless the writers could appoint ade- 
quate successors to spread the same great flood of 
metaphysical and economical light over Britain 
and the v^^orld, which their genius and knowledge 

3 Z 



538 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

have hitherto done. But as talents are not trans* 
ferable, nor hereditary, it is to be feared that if 
Elijah were again to drop, another Elisha could 
not be found to receive and to wear, his. mantle. 

In a new government indeed, like that of France, 
all the great talent of the nation is necessary to bind 
together the discordant elements of a revolutionary 
chaos, and force the career of government onward, 
in direct opposition to the feelings, habits, manners, 
affections and inclinations of the people; all whose 
political and social establishments are yet to form, 
A new dynasty, whose internal mal-contents must 
be overawed, and whose foreign enemies must be 
subdued or silenced, necessarily requires a greater 
proportion of talent to carry on the operations of 
its rule, so as to produce an equal effect of power, 
than is demanded in a well-established government, 
.where each department has its fixed rules of action ; 
and where the hearts as well as the heads of the 
people aid the accomplishment of all its efforts. A 
ship with a favorable breeze goes steadily onward 
with less seaman's help than under the pressure of an 
hurricane. 

3. It should also be noticed, that in a settled order 
of things the using all, or nearly all the great talents 
of a country in the administration, would be produc- 
tive of great evil and confusion; not only by with- 
drawing too large a portion of high intellect from 
" the calmer occupations of the pen and of the page,*' 
and thus leaving the regions of science to be explo- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, v^C. 539 

red only by the feebler light of secowdary minds; 
but also, by introducing perpetual intrigues and 
clashings of contest into the cabinet itself, and con- 
sequently weakening instead of strengthening the 
hand of supreme power. 

For great and aspiring minds cannot possibly be 
induced readily to obey ; they naturally and instinc- 
tively seek to command ; and if all order, and none 
submit, the business of the nation must be very bad- 
ly managed. When Lord Chatham presided abso- 
lutely over the British cabinet, which was filled 
with his colleagues in office, men of respectable un- 
derstanding, but certainly far inferior to himself, 
the public affairs of the nation were carried on with 
unparalleled energy and force, and Britain sprang 
speedily upward to the first rank in the common- 
wealth of Europe. But afterwards, when his admin- 
istration was composed of a greater number of extra- 
ordinary men, who disputed, instead of obeying hi^ 
commands, every thing was quickly disordered; 
Chatham retired soon after, and Britain fell into that 
stupor and lethargy, which uniting insolence with 
weakness, and tyranny with cowardice, drove her 
American colonies into rebellion, and mdependence. 

And if Bonaparte shall ever settle down in peace, 
and establish a regular order of government, in 
France, he will find himself very grievously thwarted 
and annoyed by that great phalanx of formidable 
talent which he has assembled round his throne ; ow- 
i|?g to the restless aud unmanageable nature of ge- 



540 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

nius when unemployed. At present all their activity- 
is engaged in condu: ting the great schemes and en- 
terprises, civil and military, which are necessary to 
guide France through her contests, and usurpations 
of dominion. But in peace these turbulent spirits, 
nursed in blood and long accustomed to power and 
rapine, will have sufficient leisure to employ their 
courage and talent m fjlans for their own aggran- 
dizement and the distutbance of their master. 

I am therefore inclined to think, that a wide 
field for the production and display of great talent is 
opened in Bntam, by always calling a respectable 
portion of high intellect into the service of the gov- 
ernment ; by occasionally raising up powerful 
minds from the middle and lower orders to the great 
offices of state, and thus perpetually fanning the 
flame of competition, and by encouraging the exer- 
tions of genius in every department of science, art. 
and literature, by rewards and honors. 

Perseverance in study, and a regular adherence 
through successive ages, to the great fixed princi- 
ples of moral and political science, have raised and 
maintained the British spirit, and rendered its gov- 
ernment, intelligence, agriculture, manufactures, 
commerce and marine, at once the envy and admi- 
ration of the surrounding woild. 

Great talents always follow the demand for them 3 
and no effectual bounty can be offered for their o^^- 
neral appearance and exertion, except in a free 
country, whose civil and military institutions are 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 541 

on a large and magnificent scale ; holding out the 
only great and adequate incitements of wealth, rank, 
intliience, honor, and power, for the full develop- 
ment of exalted genius. A despotism only de- 
mands one species of talent, the military ; and that 
only for a short time ; because a despotism soon 
sinks naturally by its own corruption into the slum- 
ber r,f feebleness. And a chmocracy, when once es- 
tablished, actually proscribes all great talent, by the 
nature ()f its institutions, which only require the ef- 
forts of ordinary intellect in their management ; and 
consequently whatever high talent may be produced 
in a dfinocracy in time of peace and freedom from 
national peril, it is suffered to sleep away its exist- 
ence in idleness and inactivity, never being matured 
by emplovment on a great scale, fit to rouse and 
to develop its powers. 

The following remarks are t/iken from that 
profound and luminous work, Mr, Brougham's 
** Inquiry into the Colonial Policy of the Euro- 
pean Powers," vol, 2. p, 247. 

" In fact, the foreign affairs of nations are much 
less apt to be influenced by accidental events, 
than is generally imagined. The death of a civil 
or military chief, who had supported the great- 
ness of a state by the vigor and wisdom of his 
councils, or the glory of his arms, is seldom, if 
ever, a cause of great change in the relative im- 
portance of that country. Great men rise in cer- 
tain circumstances ; they are disciplined in par- 



MS HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

ticular schools ; the}) train up successors for them- 
selves ; they are called forth by certain emergen- 
cies in public affairs. 

This is more particularly the case in great sys- 
tems, either civil or military, in the extensive go- 
vernments, or vast regular armies of modern 
times; all the operations of which are combined, 
and mutually dependent one upon another. As 
these can only be carried on by the united exer- 
tions of many persons, of the same habits and cast 
of talents, their success must always depend on 
the union of men whose abilities and experience 
in their arts are extensive. 

If the general or the statesman falls, his place 
will be filled by some of those whose talents have 
assisted him in subordinate branches of employ- 
ment ; and the constant demand for merit, in a cer- 
tain department, will generally excite men to ap- 
ply their attention to the acquisition of the ex- 
cellence 30 much wanted, and so splendidly re- 
warded. 

Great occasions draw into public life such men 
as have long been laboring to fit themselves for 
their station, and new talents, new powers fre- 
quently spring up in a man's mind, when he is 
placed in a situation of pre-eminent difficulty and 
splendor sujicient to call them forth. The great 
object of every nation should be, to remove every 
impediment or check that may prevent such men 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 545 

from rising into the stations for which their natu- 
ral or acquired faculties render them fit. 

Under 2i free government the restrictions upon 
the rise of real merit are much fewer than under 
a despotism ; and the chance of preferment is ex- 
tended to a much wider circle. In those coun- 
tries then much less consequence may be attach- 
ed to the existence or to the loss of a particular 
man." 

It is also strongly objected against Britain, by 
the most respectable men of all parties in the Uni- 
ted States, that she so constantly sends out to this 
country y^e^/e ambassadors. 

To this very grievous charge I confess the Bri- 
tish government must plead guilty. For what- 
ever might be the qualifications of unimpeached 
honor, or of gentlemanly address and manners, in 
the several ministers which Britain has sent to 
these United States, it certainly cannot be deem- 
ed harsh and uncharitable to say, that they have 
not been very profoundly, or very comprehen- 
sively furnished with those various natural endow- 
ments, and acquired information, which are essen- 
tial to the constitution of that rare and exalted 
character, a political economist, and a practical 
statesman. 

That an ambassador ought to be a statesman ; 
that he ought to be intimately acquainted with 
the internal resources and foreign relations of his 
own country, in order to enable him to learn 



544 HJNTS ON THE NATIONAL 

with more exactness the political condition and 
the national character of the people to whose go- 
vernment he is sent as envoj , few who have ex- 
amined the importance of the subject will be dis- 
posed to deny. 

And as the points of political contact be- 
tween the United States and Britain are many^ 
and as the commercial relations of the two coun- 
tries are various and extensive, and without doubt 
highly beneficial to both; ii is of considerable im- 
portance that Britain send out to this country 
public functionaries who n.ight be able and wil- 
ling to discover the habits and dispositions of the 
American people; to develop the bearings and 
tendencies of their government ; to fathom their 
national resources ; to comprehend and to appre- 
ciate the complicated interests, the multiplied re- 
lations, the ever-varying political aspect of a 
country, whose institutions are all founded on the 
basis of popular authority and universal suffrage, 
under one general federal head, and no less than 
eighteen separate, independent, sovereign, repub- 
lican states. 

It is too true, that for several years past, Britain 
has not been sufficiently careful in her choice of 
men to represent her sovereign at the seat of the 
other governments of the world; considering what 
important consequences are involved in the exe- 
cution of an ambassador's very delicate and diffi- 
cult functions. By the institution of envoys is 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 545 

kept up a direct and constant intercourse between 
the governments of different na1 ions ; and opjior- 
tunities are offered of discovering, and often of 
preventing, the full accomplijihrnent of those 
schemes and measures, which, if not thus season- 
ably counteracted, might eventually lead to ag- 
gression and to war, with all its horrible train of 
calamity and desolation. 

France, the common enemy of the human race, 
has generally shewn herself to be fully aware of 
the extensive political benefits resulting from the 
employment of able and active envoys at foreign 
courts. Bj'^ means of her diplomatic agency she 
has alwaj^s exercised a ver}^ extensive influence 
over the cabinets of other nations ; and has gener- 
ally outwitted the British ambassadors in transac- 
tions involving the most essential interests of Bri- 
tain. 

Two very important questions, as naturally con- 
nected with this subject, occur, which I have nei- 
ther leisure nor capacity to break up, and trace to 
their remoter consequences. I siiall therefore 
merely state their outlines, in the hope that some 
minds of greater opportunity and talent might be 
induced to treat them in a manner becoming their 
great political weight and moment. 

1. Is not vanity, or self-consequence, or self-es- 
teem, the primary moving spritig of all govern- 
ments, as it is naturally of all individuals ? And is 
it not by perpetually appealing to the vanity of 

4 A. 



.546 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

secondary nations, that France is uniformly able 
to cajole and influence, in order to plunder and 
destroy them? While Britain, by eternally wound- 
ing their vanity, and irritating their self-conse- 
quence, excites their hatred and disgust ; although 
all her great national measures have a direct ten- 
dency to preserve these minor countries from de- 
struction ? 

So an artful, unprincipled demagogue flatters 
and deceives the multitude into its own ruin, in 
order to forward his own base purposes ; and the 
multitude is vastly delighted with their worthy 
compatriot, who picks their pockets, and subverts 
their liberties ; while an upright, honorable states- 
man, who never stoops to lying and baseness, but 
really labors for the public weal, is always feared 
and hated by the mob, whose vanity is wounded,, 
and whose envy is excited by his superior integri- 
ty and wisdom. 

Will not the application of this principle to the 
affairs of governments explain, why secondary na- 
tions always lean favorably towards the most un- 
principled primary nation, and in consequence 
inevitably perish ? In Holland a French officer 
would receive the petition of a Dutchman cour- 
teously ; compliment and flatter him on the jolly 
rotundity of his person; send him away pleased 3 
and then throw the petition into the fire : while an 
English commander would be reserved and dis- 
tant, grant the petition, and offend the petitioner. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 54? 

Is it thus, that the French please and influence 
all the minor nations of the world; while Britain 
generally offends them by her loftiness and pride ? 
Mankind, perhaps universally, prefer him who 
tickles their vanity, and flatters their self-conse- 
quence, to him who confers upon them the greatest 
and most permanent benefits, without at the same 
time doing homage to their importance. The af- 
fections of men are generally won by little atten- 
tions, not great kindnesses. 

2. Can people resident in a primary nation, as 
in France or Britain, possibly learn how such a 
nation acts, and is acted upon by other both pri- 
mary and secondary nations; seeing that their 
attention is chiefly confined to the operations of 
the primary power, how it shall act upon, and in- 
fluence the rest of the world ? Is this the reason 
why Britain and France are so ignorant of each 
other's actual condition and resources ? 

Does not a resident in a secondary nation see 
how the primary nations operate upon all the world, 
because all the exterior political movements of the 
secondary are directed by the measures of the pri- 
mary nations ? Witness the anti-commercial decrees 
of France and Britain in the years 1806, 1807, 1808, 
1809, by which these United States, and all the 
other secondary nations of the world are thrown out 
of their ordinary course ; whereas, no measure of a 
secondary nation can ever possibly throw a primary 
power off its balance; for instance the American 



54S HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

embargo of 1807, 1808, 1809, has almost beg- 
gaicdand destroyed the Union, but has not even 
peiceptihiy affected either Britain or France. 

Is this a sufficient reason to account for M. 
Gent.v, the Prussian war counsellor, living at Berlin, 
in the heart of a secondary country, having in his 
answer to M. Hauterive, given a more accurate and 
comprehensive view of the positive and relative con- 
dition of France and Britain, than has ever been 
done by any Frenchman or Englishman ? 

But to return. In this awful crisis of the world, 
when Britain, almost alone and single-handed, 
maintains the cause ol liberty, of all social virtue, 
and civilized enjoyment, in dreadful conflict against 
the combined force of the greater part of Europe 
and its dependencies, it behoves the British govern- 
ment to consider well how they shall play for the iew 
foreign stakes, now left m their hands ; lest* they un- 
wittingly throw them also entirely into the arms of 
France ; a measure, as far as relates to this country, 
which a very powerful party in these United States, 
known by the name of the anti-federal, democra- 
tic, or jacobin faction, strain every nerve to accom- 
plish. 

And perhaps, ii might be expedient for Britain to 
alter very generally the course of her accustomed di- 
plomacy, and send out to other governments, and 
particularly to these United States, ambassador.^ 
who would think more and talk less; who would 
carefully studj-, develop and manage the national 

L. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 5A^ 

feelings and habits of the people among whom they 
reside ; and who would be capable of advancing the 
real and permament interests of their own country, 
in all their various diplomatic transactions. 

It ought to be a matter of deep and serious import 
to Britain always to keep in this country a resident 
minister i able to comprehend the relations and inter- 
ests of the two people ; and of sufficient magnani- 
mity to endeavor to unite them in the closest bonds 
of amity, by promoting all those measures of policy 
and commerce which would redound to their mutual 
advantage; and thus, by conjoining in the ties of 
friendship the only two people who enjoy even the 
semblance of freedom, and an equitable administra- 
tion of justice, might raise a firm and an effectual 
barrier against that unrelenting despotism which is 
rolling together as a scroll the kmgdoms and the 
empires of the civilized world ; which is even now 
flooding out a tide of desolation, that has alread\' 
swept away the ancient boundaries and land-marks 
of the fairer and the better portion of the globe, 
and threatens to deluge the remainder of the earth 
with the waters of bitterness and of death. 

When it is recollected that ambassadors furnish 
the intelligence which directs all the movements of 
their respective governments, as to their relations 
with foreign powers ; perhaps, it will not be thought 
that too much stress has been laid upon the great 
importance of a cautious and prudent selection of 
men, fit and able to execute the very important and 
arduous duties of an envov. 



^50 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

In some instances Britain has shewn herself tho- 
roughly sensible of the vast consequences resulting 
from the employment of capable ambassadors. She 
has availed herself of the great diplomatic talents of 
a Temple, a Marlborough, aWalpole, anda Malmes- 
bury. And if she would oftener have recourse to 
such negociators, she certainly would not be so fre- 
quently over-seen by France in her diplomatic trans- 
actions and treaties ; nor be so constantly exposed 
to the perilous necessity of standing alone against 
the armed combinations of other powers, who have 
been blinded to their own best interests, and duped 
into hostility against her by the more dexterous ma- 
nagement, and the more subtle policy of French en- 
voys. 

A \ery acute and able living vi^riter, (Mr. Steph- 
en, author of" War in Disguise," " The Dangers 
of the Country," &c. &c.) objects this general 
want of foreign policy to the British government, 
and considers it as not confmed merely to care- 
lessness in the choice of ambassadors : he says, 

" A magnanimous, but not very prudent con- 
tempt of the popular voice in foreign countries, 
or at least of the ??ze^?i^ of obtaining its suffrage, 
has been long displayed by the Cabinet of Eng- 
land. The British fight, pay, and negociatcj 
but except in a formal manifesto, do not reason 
to the European or American public. They aban- 
don to their enemies the influence of every foreign 
press i even where the fear of French arms does 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 65] 

iiot preclude a competition. This is perhaps a 
natural, though accidental consequence of the 
peculiar form of the British government. The 
rights and the interests of the nation, the grounds 
of its wars and its treaties, are copiously discus- 
sed in Parliament; and the British statesmen 
forget that foreign politicians do not always 
read their debates." 

It should not, however, pass unnoticed that in 
other countries, ambassadors transact their busi- 
ness, and come in contact chiefly with the minis- 
ters and leading men about the court to which 
they are sent ; and which men pursue some mea- 
sures o^fixedy permanent policy. But in the Uni- 
ted States, iwhere the people bear so much sway, 
and are perpetually changing their public officers, 
and consequently their public measures, a British 
ambassador is exposed to greater difficulties in 
his proceedings; and finds it almost impossible to 
conciliate the favor, or to gain the confidence of 
the many contending factions in this country, so 
as to obtain any very liberal or permanent ar- 
rangement for the mutual benefit of both nations. 

Add to which, he is continually exposed to a 
multitude of blunt and awkward questions in a 
country, where democracy is so much the prevail- 
ing fashion as to break down all the wholesome, 
distinctions of rank and order; and liberty and 
equality are carried to such a height, that the polit- 
ical importance of the meanest, themost ignorant 



o52 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

and factious citizen, is put upon the same level 
with that of the most elevated and enlightened. 

All these difficulties, however, are only so ma- 
ny additional arguments to strengthen the neces- 
sity and importance of Britain's sending out able 
resident ministers to the United States. 

But I am also vvell aware of the difficulty of pre- 
vailing upon great and primary talents to come out 
as ambassadors from Britain to this country ; 
which being only a minor and a secondary nation, 
hulds our no inducement to such men. To reside 
in the midst of a rude anil uniormed state of soci- 
ety ; to receive a scanty and beggarly salary • 
and to find every opening of the avenues to high 
political rank and honor in Britain shat against 
them ; can never become objects of ambition to 
men of elevated minds, and extensive inform/ation. 

According to the present system of British di- 
plomacy, while these men were vv-asting their 
best years in an inglorious obscurity at Washing- 
ton, " that desert called a city ;" (as Colonel 
Pickering terms it) and reaping nothing but a 
harvest of suspicion from America, and of forget- 
fulness from Britain ; their compeers in age and 
talents would be pressing forward to the highest 
stations of political excellence in their native land. 
Men, conscious of their own intellectual strength, 
cannot consent to sacrifice every prospect of hon- 
orable advancement, in order to attend for a while 
upon the minute movements of a feeble fluctua- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 65$ 

ting, unpurposed cabinet ; and then to sink into 
the nameless obscurity of mere private gentlemen* 

AVhile the greater nations of the earth, there- 
fore ; while France, and Spain, and Austria, and 
Russia, open wide and ample fields of diplomatic 
exertion to the ambition of Britain's abler men; 
the United States invite and receive only those or- 
dinary talents, which, indeed, enable their posses- 
sor to bow at a levee, and to preside with easy de- 
corum at a dinner; but can never qialify him to 
discern the great interests of a nation ; to sound 
the depths and shoals of political intrigue; to up- 
hold the dignity of his own country; and at the 
same time to conciliate the esteem and affection 
of a foreign nation. 

Yet precisely such men, of rare and exalted en- 
dowments, are indispensably necessary to come 
out from Britain as resident ministers in these 
United States. The British government has too 
long wider-rated the importance of America. It 
is now high time to distinguish between an un- 
principled and desperate French jacobin faction, 
and the highly valuable national character of the 
native American people ; and also to appreciate 
the inexhaustible resources, physical and niora.1, 
of this country. 

Unless Britain send out men of exalted and 
comprehensive minds, in a word, sagacious and 
prudent statesmen, to represent their sovereign in 
the United States, the mutual interests of the two 

4b 



J54 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

countues ?iever ca?i be understood; and French 
influence will always continue to predominate in 
the Union, and to sow the seeds of discord between 
two nations whose reciprocal prosperity would be 
very greatly promoted by living together on terms 
of amity and affection. 

In order to effect this desirable purpose, the 
British government must offer a bounty sufficient- 
ly high to induce men of primary talents to relin- 
quish the physical conveniences and comforts, the 
intellectual enjoyments, all the refinements of 
taste that are fostered in the polished society of 
Europe; and to encounter the rude shocks of un- 
civilized life, of democratic vulgarity and inso- 
lence, of infant science, and of unformed art, in 
the United States. The salary of the British min- 
ister resident in America must be greatly enlar- 
ged ; and above all, his appointment must be made 
the broad and direct road to high political honor, 
rank, and power in Britain. 

If it be an object of importance that America 
should co-operate with Britain in defending the 
last remains of political freedom against the rava- 
ges of Gallic tyranny, the British government 
must send out to this country a Sir William Tem- 
ple, or a Horace AValpole. But if it be advisable 
for her to continue in perpetual broils and mis- 
understandings with her American brethren, she 
will do as she has hitherto done. 

It must not however be dissembled, that the 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 555 

British government is not altogether to blame in 
omitting to send out able men as ambassadors to 
foreign countries. For the men of primary talents 
in Britain had rather go into the House of Com- 
mons, where their great intellect has an immediate 
opportunity of displaying itself, so as to make a 
powerful and permanent impression upon the 
whole British community, and thus lay open for 
them a broad and ample road to the posts of in- 
fluence and honor, than enter upon an embassy to 
a foreign court, where they are more out of sight 
of their own countrymen, and consequently, being 
Iiule seen and felt, are apt to glide down the stream 
of life into forgetful ness. 

The French, on the contrary, have no great 
theatre at home for the display of popular talents, 
and therefore willingly go abroad to seek objects 
on which to execute their schemes of political in- 
trigue ; and by their collective efforts of fraud and 
flattery, as ministers, ambassadors, agents, and 
spies, obtain more power and influence in foreign 
cabinets, than their own government ever effects 
by the wisdom and energy of its administration at 
home. 

Nevertheless, the British government has it in 
its power to create a bounty of honor and ambition 
sufficiently high to induce men of exalted talents 
to become the representatives of their sovereign 
in foreign countries. And until this be done the 
exterior relations of Britain will always be so 



55Q HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

lamely conducterl, as to produce much trouble 
and serious detriment to her best and most essen- 
tial interests. 

It is perhaps necessary to say a few words re- 
specting Mr. Jackson, who has very lately come 
to the United States as the British resident minis- 
ter. This gentleman in early life accompanied 
i,ord St. Helens as Secretary of Legation to Mad- 
rid, where he conducted himself so ably, and so 
satisfactorily to both the British and Spanish gov- 
ernments, as to be appointed ambassador, on the 
return of Lord St. Helens home on account of ill 
health ; which took place within two years after 
his first entrance into Spain. 

Mr. Jackson, since that time, has resided in a di- 
plomat c capacity, at the counts of Berlin, Constan- 
tinople, Paris, and Copenhagen, at all of which pla- 
ces he di.scharged the duties of his high and responsi- 
ble st.ition, with fidelity to his government and honor 
to himself. 

It appeared necessary to give this brief notice of 
Mr. Jackson, because for these four months past all 
the democratic papersin the Union have been dailyjis- 
sumg the most base and atrocious lies and calum- 
nies against this gentleman. 

In the month of July 1809, the account came to 
this country that the British government disavowed 
the ag-e'^ment made with the United States by Mr, 
Davi'l Erskine, aJ? having been concluded in direct 
violation of his orders and instructions. Immediately 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 557 

all the democratic presses in the union resounded 
with clainors ai^aiiist " the bdseness and perfidy of 
the Biirish nation." Kmg George the Third was 
incesSfiii^Iy leviletl as " a hypocrite, and a tyrant," 
and Ml-. Canijing was greeted with the courteous 
appellaMons oi" " har, scoundrel, coward, fool," and 
many other compliments equally refined and elegant. 

The leading douocratic administration prints de- 
clared, " that the British government had given cer- " 
ta-n instructions to Mr David Erskine, Vv-ho strictly 
and literally obeyed them; but finding itself outwit- 
ted by the superior sagacity of Messrs. Madison, 
Smiih, and Gallatin, it now comes forward zvith a 
lie in its monfh, and endeavors to cover its own folly 
from the world by basely sacrificing its honest and 
able minister, who, inheriting all the talents of his in-* 
comparable father, the sage Lord Erskine, undoubt- 
edly the greatest statesman [l^ord^n^kine a states- 
man !) now in Britain, has as much wit as Mr. Can- 
ning, and far more wisdom." 

The character of Mr. Jackson, at that time on- 
ly the proposed Minister from Britain, was, (and is 
indeed to this day, October !^Oth 1809) attempted to 
be blackened by every species of the most infamous 
slander. The most atrocious, inconsistent, contra- 
dictory lies have been every day for these four months 
past invented, in order to render him at once an ob- 
ject of contempt and of abhorrence in the eyes of 
the American people. The government of the 
United States was incessantly called upon by news- 



558 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

paper denunciations, and speeches and resolutions in 
democratic clubs and meetings^ " not to receive 
Jac^kson ; to forbid him iipoji pain of death to pollute 
the continent of America with his cursed foot ; to 
declare immediate war against Great Britain ; be- 
ginning with the confiscation of all British property, 
public and private, in and out of the United States' 
funds ; and pro^^ressing onward to the capture of 
Canada, Nova Scotia, and New- Brunswick, and end- 
ing with seizing all the West-India islands, half oi 
which are to be given to France, and the other half 
retained by America." 

All this puling, miserable jargon is perpetually 
bruited into our ears at this moment ; and the most 
extravagant assertions are made as to the precise 
moment in which Britain will cease to be a nation. 
Some of the profounder statesmen say " four 
months ;" others, more humane, allow her to live 
until the end o{ six months from the present hour, 
positively asserting that " beyond the early spring of 
1810 nothing earthly can prolong her national ex- 
istence." 

Compare these ebullitions of democratic justice 
and liberality with the conduct of Britain in relation 
to Mr. Munroe, when appointed American Ambas- 
sador to the court of St. James. Mr. Munroe, was 
known to be an incorrigible democrat ; he had actu- 
ally laid a plan before the French government, when 
resident minister for the United States at Paris, for 
the destruction of Britain, and was remarkable for 
nothing so much as for his hatred to England. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 559 

Yet against this man not a single paragraph 
ever appeared in the British prints, either before 
his arrival at, or during his stay in, or after his 
departure from, London. Nevertheless, against 
Mr. Jackson, long before he arrived, and every 
hour since he has resided in these United States, 
although he has never in word or deed expressed 
any dislike towards this country, the precious or- 
gan-pipes of democracy have been and now are 
incessantly pealing the loudest thunders of re- 
proach and calumny; greeting him with no other 
appellations than those of *' the Copenhagen mur- 
derer," " the Copenhagen assassin," " the mur- 
derer of thousands and tens of thousands," "the 
intended destroyer of the United States," and so 
forth, and so forth. 

It is a notorious fact, that while all the demo- 
cratic presses in the Union are daily and hourly 
groaning with the weight of abuses perpetually 
heaped upon Britain, it seldom happens that even 
a single paragraph of censure upon America ap- 
pears in the British public prints. This can only 
be accounted for on the principle, that the 
quantity and virulence of calumny vented against 
a given object, are generally in proportion to the 
importance of that object. 

In France the private conversations and the 
public works pour out a greater abundance of 
abuse upon Britain than upon all the other na- 
tions of the earth put together ; because France 



566 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

feels that British wealth, valor, wisdom, and influ- 
ence oppose insuperable obstacles to her incessant 
endeavors to subjugate and insla\e the world. 
And in Britain France is honored with a larger 
portion of invective than is bestowed u})on all the 
rest of the habitable globe collectively ; because 
French power, and French violence and injiistice, 
immediately endanger the repose and security of 
the British en^pire. 

This rule holds equally in respect to individuals 
as to nations ; the tongne of slander, and the pen 
of virulence are directed against the brave, the 
wealthy, the powerful, the eloquent, the wise and 
good ; and not against the foolish and the feeble, 
the cowardly and the insignificant. The applica- 
tion of this principle will enable us to draw a to- 
lerably correct inlerence as to the rela/ive impor- 
tance of Britain and America to each other and 
to the world at large ; notwithstanding the inces- 
sant assurances and fulminations of our democrats 
here, that " the zvhole British empire is entirely de- 
pendent upon these United States." 

I cannot conclude the subject of ambassadors 
without stating, on the authority of a senator now 
in congress^ the following instance of Mr. David 
Erskine's diplomatic zvisdom. Towards the close 
of the winter session of Congress in 1808 — 9, 
Mr. Giles brought into the senate of the United 
States his famous non-intercourse bill. Mr. Giles 
is undoubtedly the most able leader of all the de- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, kc. 56l 

mocratic party in the Union, and as undoubtedly, 
the most virulent enemy of Britain, and the most 
partial admirer of France. 

Mr. Giles proposed the insertion of a clause in 
his non-intercourse bill to this effect, namely, that 
the Fj'ejich ships of war should be admitted into 
the waters and harbors of the United States, while 
the British ships of war should be rigorously ^.r- 
cluded from those harbors and waters. A gentleman 
rose on the floor of the senate and opposed this 
clause of the bill, as being highly dishonorable to 
America, in showing a most servile and flagrant 
partiality for France, and a no less base and unjust 
hostility against England. Mr. Giles replied, 
that he had waited upon Mr. David Erskine, the 
British minister, at Washington, and asked him if 
there would be any objection on the part of Bri- 
tain to the insertion of such a clause ; Mr. Erskine 
replied, that the British government would have 
no objection to such an exemption in favor of 
French ships of war, while those of Britain were 
interdicted. 

This declaration appeared so extraordinary, 
that it was supposed Mr. Giles had made some 
mistake ; and di federal member of the senate im- 
mediately went to Mr. Erskine, and inquired if 
he really were in earnest in asserting that the 
British government would have no objection to 
the admissiori of French war-ships into the Ame- 

4 C 



562, HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

rican ports, while those of Britain were excluded ? 
Mr. Erskine again made answer that his govern- 
ment had 710 objection to the insertion of such a 
clause in favor of France, and to the injury of 
Britain. 

At the time when Mr. David Erskine took up- 
on himself to assure both the federal and demo- 
cratic parties of the union that the British govern- 
ment was altogether indifferent as to how much 
favor America might show to France, and how 
much injustice she might exercise towards Britain, 
he actually had in his possession the instructions 
of Mr. Canning, expressly forbidding him to com- 
mence any negociations with the American go- 
vernment until it had put Britain and France upon 
a perfect equality of treatment by the United 
States. 

The farther development of Mr. David Erskine's 
diplomatic conduct in this country 1 must post- 
pone until I discuss the foreign relations of the 
Union in my View of America. I shall now only 
add, that it has long been matter of deep astonish- 
ment to all the thinking part of the American 
public, how Mr. Fox could possibly send, and 
how Mr. Canning could possibly continue in the 
office of British ambassador to these United States 
the honorable David Montague Erskine, whose 
entire want of all native talent, and whose unpar- 
donable ignorance of all, even the simplest ele- 
ments of political information, have long since 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 663 

rendered him the object of universal scorn or 
compassion in the eyes of every well-wisher to the 
best interests of America and Britain. 

Another very prevailing doctrine among a cer- 
tain class of politicians in the Union is, that Bri- 
tain, in addition to her speedily approaching sub- 
jugation by France, is now on the eve of a most 
terrible political revolution, from the furious con- 
tentions of the various internal factions which are 
tearing out the bowels of their common country. 
And they quote scraps from Cobbett's Political 
Register, pages from the Edinburgh Review, ex- 
tracts from the opposition speeches in Parlia- 
ment, and the 7'^(;rm- harangues of the Crown & 
Anchor tavern ; as conclusive proofs, that the Brit- 
ish constitution is about to be overturned, tlie 
public debt sponged, the nobility degraded, the 
two Houses of Parliament dissolved for ever, the 
clergy butchered, the merchants robbed, all the 
people and property put in requisition ; in a word, 
that all the horrors of anarchy and violence, of 
cruelty and blood, which have been acted on so 
extensive a scale in France, are to be immediately 
renewed " with greater perfidy and barbarity in 
England." 

But a great mistake as to the real state of po- 
litical parties of Britain pervades the whole pha- 
lanx of politicians to whom I allude. The British 
nation is pretty equally divided into two great 
political parties, the whig and the tory ; each of 



5QA HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

which includes within itself a vast body of talent, 
information, rank, property and influence. Both 
these parties are attached to the present form of 
government in Britain, both are desirous of up- 
liolding the constitution and the monarchy ; they 
only differ as to their separate views respecting 
the best means of accomplishing this great and de- 
sirable end. 

Where the government is both stable and free, 
as in Britain, parties may be safely allovved to 
take their full range of exertion. There must be 
differences of opinion, and mutual opposition will 
engender bitterness of contest, and some ran- 
corous feeling. There must be rivalships among 
those whom genius, rank, or reputation have made 
powerful ; and the contests of such opponents will 
often deeply agitate, but seldom endanger the 
safety of a nation. For the common aim oi both 
parties is to obtain power and place under not 
ove?^ the government ; as was the case in France, 
during the explosion of the revolution ; and as 
must ever be the case in the struggles of demo- 
cracy . 

It is an act of gross and flagrant injustice to con- 
found the strictures of the Edinburgh Review, and 
the speeches of the opposition in Parliament, with 
the ignorant scurrility of Cobbett's Political Regis- 
ter and the ravings of the jacobin reform-faction 
at the Crown & Anchor. The very able and 
temperate letter of the Earl of Selkirk, to Major 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 56S 

Cartwriejht, lately published in the London pa- 
pers, sufficiently unfolds the views of the reform^ 
ers. And a conclusive proof that Cobbett has 
fallen into the sere and yellow leaf of jacobinism 
is, the perpetual and commendatory citations of 
his Political Register in all the democratic papers 
of the Union ; the papers of that very same demo- 
cratic party, whose fraud and treason to their 
own country are no where more ably and more 
successfully exposed than by Mr. Cobbett himself 
in his lucubrations of Peter Porcupine. 

But whoever carefully peruses the pages of the 
Edinburgh Review, and the speeches of the oppo- 
sition in Parliament, will find, however violent 
or intemperate they may be in their expressions 
of censure against the existing British administra- 
tion, yet they are both equally strenuous in their 
determination to support the constitution and 
government of Britain against all the attacks of 
the common enemy of mankind. 

In the reign of George the second, an ambassa- 
dor from Spain to Britain, expressed his wonder, 
to a gentleman of London, that the two conten- 
ding whig and tory parties should so desperately 
hate each other ; and observed that the nation 
must be so weakened by their mutual opposition 
as soon to fall an easy prey to the invasion of a 
foreign foe. 

The English gentleman led away the Spaniard 
to see two British bull-dogs fight, which they did 



566 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

most furiously, tearing each Other very terribly i 
after a while, a bear was turned in upon the floor 
where the two dogs were fighting ; they instantly 
ceased their mutual strife, both attacked the bear, 
speedily drove him off, and then renewed their 
quarrel with each other. 

This, said the Englishman to the Spaniard, is a 
correct resemblance of the whig and tory parties ; 
they worry one another incessantly ; but should 
any bear, in the shape of France or Spain, attack 
their common country, they will both instantly 
unite to buffet the bear ; which being done, they 
will worry each other as before. 

Lord Chatham's glorious war, which followed 
soon after, and for a long season completely shat- 
tered the power both of France and Spain, fully 
verified the correctness of the parallel between 
the political parties and the bull-dogs of Britain. 

Not so the miserable remnant of the jacobin 
faction in England ; these beings, alike destitute 
of property, influence, talent, knowledge, num- 
bers, and principle, always, in common with their 
brother disciples of democracy all over the world, 
scrupulously copy the example of their great pa- 
tron and paymaster, Bonaparte; and with the 
words " liberty, reform^ amelioration of the condition 
of many' &c. &c. on their lips, show by all their 
actions, that they are prepared for the perpetra- 
tion of injustice, fraud, butchery, and every crime 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 567 

that can cover the earth with horror and desola- 
tion. 

Hatred to their ozvn country, more especially if 
that country be Britain, is the characteristic fea- 
ture of erm/ jacobin. That this pernicious race 
is not yet quite extinct in England, the following 
circular letter from a mercantile house in Liver- 
pool, to their American correspondents, written 
for the sole purpose of exciting these United 
States into a war with Britain, will sufficiently 
prove. 

The chief active, letter-writing partner in the 
house, is a United Irishman^ who was in arms 
against his own country, in the late rebellion 
against Britain, at Wexford, in Ireland. This let- 
ter has been industriously copied, and re-copied in 
manj^of the democratic papers of the administration 
party in the Union, " as a conclusive proof of the 
absolute necessity of America immediately decla^ 
ring war against the base, perfidious, cowardly, 
British nation ; (not a syllable against France,) 
seeing that the patriotic house of Dixon, Lavater, 
& Co. of Liverpool, (England,) have manfully y 
and liberally, and philanthropically, revealed the 
infamous intentions of the most corrupt and atro- 
cious government in the world." 



568 HINTS ON THE ^NATIONAL 

Liverpool, 2d September, 180^. 

" Whilst we are fully convinced that, as far as it 
is practicable, the course of American policy will 
be unalterably pacific, we are not without our 
fears that the intercourse will again be suspended. 
The partial repeal of our Orders in Council, and 
the mild character of our constructive Blockade, 
may, if skilfully and temperately urged, lead to a 
happy issue ; but knowing that the sentiment of the 
British minister is lofty and unwise, — ' that Amer- 
ica will, America must submit,' (quoting these as 
Mr. Canning's own words,) we apprehend that 
Mr. Jackson's instructions are not quite so con- 
ciliatory as the novelty and oppression of the case, 
as well as the vital interests at stake, so evi- 
dently and powerfully demanded. 

*' Unfortunately for our country, there is a war- 
like character in our Councils, which is totaUy ad- 
verse to any permanent arrangement ; and sooner 
or later, this spirit, if not laid by the nation, will 
seek an opportunity of dischargmg itself upon 
America. Even where the interests of America 
are concurrent with the measures of Britain, the 
disposition is never allowed to grace the act, and 
the English minister, with a degree of asperity 
which is without precedent and without apology, 
shamelessly avows, that the good which was done 
to America hy his measures, was undesigned by his 
government ! How can we ultimately look to 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 569 

peace from an administration where the very de- 
sire of doing good from a good motive is renoun- 
ced in the most daring and profligate manner. 

" It is very clear that the governments of Amer^ 
ica and England have not yet come together with 
that earnestness, or understood each other with 
that precision, u hi(;h the magnitude of the sub- 
ject, the very nature of tlio <lisnnssion, and above 
ali, the distant position of the two nations, so 
pre-eminently demanded; we will further venture 
to assert, without any qualification or condition 
whatever, that Mr. Erskine is not the ojih/ mem- 
ber of the diplomatic tribe who has incurred the 
displeasure, or forfeited the confidence of his gov- 
ernment. 

*•' That Mr. Madison will act towards Englandy 
as well as France, with temper, moderation, and 
firmness, zve have no doubt whatever; but the 
points in discussion are of the most delicate and 
vital nature. What can be the equivalents for 
the honor — for any portion of the honor, or just 
ueutralitj'^ of a nation "^ 

" Our conviction is, that if you do not contend^ 
you will seek in vain for ample justice from France 
or England ; and the question then will be : — una- 
ble to obtain justice from either ^ will you, upon 
the cold doctrine of prudence or necessity y submit 
to a system of impartial rigor, insult, and oppres- 
sion from both ? The position of America gives 
Jier strength ; and though in distinct and differ- 

4 D 



570 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

ent points, she is perhaps unequal to other na- 
tions, still she may be honest to herself. 

" This in our opinion, is the great question^ even if 
the dispute should for a time be patched up^ which 
must arrest the attention of the next Congi ess. The 
Representatives of America, zve think, will do their 
duty J but after what is past, should they in a tempor- 
izing spirit, or with those compliances of which Eu- 
rope furnishes an ample catalogue of exanijjles, com- 
promise the neutral rights, honors, and advantages 
of their country; then, we are convinced, they will 
find at home a power mo^'e fatal to them than Eng- 
land or France, or even France and England united. 

"We have been led into these political speculations 
from a strong conviction of their importance ; and 
from the unalterable belief, that however our com- 
merce may fluctuate under the vici^ssitudes of the 
negociations, it is the discussions in Congress which 
must give ^.Jirm and ultimate turn to our market." 
We remain, &c. 

Dixon, Lavater 8( Co" 

The discussion as to the expediency or the evil of 
political parties existing in a country is kept up in 
the United States, with great ingenuity and perseve- 
rance, by the advocates on both sides of the ques- 
tion. 

One class of politicians declare that the existence 
of political parties in a country is absolutely neces- 
sary, in order to keep alive the spirit of liberty in 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 5ll 

that country ; for if there were no party in opposi- 
tion to the existing government, that government, 
unwatched and unchecked, would soon degenerate 
into unmitigated despotism, by the necessary ten- 
dency which all men in power feel to continually 
augment their authority. In arbitrary and tyrannic 
countries no clashing of parties exists j there all is 
the calm, the silent torpor of anguish and despair; 
the despot commands, and the slave obeys ; the 
monarch frowns, and the people die. 
All analogy, we are told, confirms the validity of 
this doctrine. The state of the natural world, ab- 
horring absolute quiescence, and requiring continual 
motion, points out the necessity of frequent collisions 
in the moral world. From the slumber of the stag- 
nant lake are exhaled the steams of pestilence and 
drath ; but the unwearied agitation of the ocean- 
wave, and the incessant turbulence of the billowy 
deep, preserve the mighty mass of waters from putre- 
faction and decay, 

" Where there is no liberty men may be exempt 
from party. There are fewer mal-contents in Tur- 
key than in any free state in the world. Where the 
people have no power, they enter into no contests, 
and are not anxious about its use. The spirit of 
discontent becomes torpid for want of employment, 
and sighs itself to rest. The people sleep soundly in 
their chains, and do not even dream of their weight. 
They lose their turbulence with their energy, and 
become as tractable as anv other tame animals. 



572 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

" Yet that heart is base and slavish which would 
not bleed freely, rather than submit to such a condi- 
tion ; for liberty, with all its parties and agitations, 
is preferable to the torpor of slavery. Who would 
not prefer the little republics of ancient Greece, 
where liberty once prevailed in its excess, its delirium, 
terrible in its charms, and glistening to the last with 
the blaze of the fire that consumed it, to the dozing 
slavery of modern Greece, where the degraded 
wretches have suffered, until they merit scorn ?" 

Another order of statesmen, at the head of whom 
stand the venerable Washington, and the tinimitatedy 
inimitable Hamilton, deprecate the prevalence of po- 
litical parties, as injurious to the most essential in- 
terests of the community. 

In General Washington's valedictory address to 
the people of the United States, are these sentiments 
upon the subject of political parties delivered. 

"^ I have already intimated to you the danger of 
parties in the state, with particular references to the 
founding them on geographical discriminations. Let 
me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn 
you in the most solemn manner against the baneful 
effects of the spirit of party generally. This spirit, 
unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having 
its root in the strongest passions of the human heart. 
It exists under different shapes, in all governments, 
more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed ; but in 
those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest 
rankness, and is truly their worst enemy. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 573 

" The alternate domination of one faction over ano- 
ther, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to 
partv-dissension, which in different ages and coun- 
tries has perpetrated the most horrid deformities, is 
itself a fj'ightfiil despotism. But th.s leads at length 
to a more formal and permanent despotism. The 
disorders and m;series which result, gradually incline 
the minds of men to ^efk security and repose in the 
absolute power of an individual, and sooner or later 
the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or 
more fortunate than his competitors, turns this dispo- 
sition to the purposes of his own elevation on the 
runis of public liberty. 

" Without looking forward to an extremity of this 
kind, which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out 
of sight, the common and continual mischiefs of the 
spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest 
and duty of a wise people to discourage and res- 
train it. 

" Jt serves always to distract the public councils, 
and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates 
the community with ill-founded jealousies and false 
alarms ; kindles the animosity of one part against 
another ; foments occasional riot and insurrection. 
It opens the door to foreign influence and corrup- 
tion, which finds facilitated access to the govern- 
ment itself through the channels of party-passions. 
Thus the policy and will of one country are subjec- 
ted to the policy and will of another. 

" There is an opinion that parties in free countries 



574 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

are useful checks upon the administration of the 
government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of li- 
berty. This, vt^ithin certain limits, is probably true ; 
and in governments of a monarchical cast patriotism 
may look with an eye of indulgence, if not of favor, 
upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popu- 
lar character, in governments purely elective, it is a 
spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural 
tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of 
that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there 
being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to 
be, by force of public opinion to mitigate and as- 
suage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a 
uniform vigilance to prevent it from bursting into a 
flame ; lest, instead of warming, it should consume." 

That these precautions and admonitions are just 
and salutary, there can be no doubt. But it is abso- 
lutely impossible to prevent the very general and 
powerful mfluence of party-spirit, in every popular 
and free government, owing to the necessary and 
natural diversity of opinion in the very iew that can 
think ; the unavoidable ignorance and folly of the 
many who are led ; and the continual clashings of 
the different passions, prejudices, and interests of 
all ; which ever must and will have vent in opposi- 
tion, clamor, violence, and faction, when unrestrain- 
ed by the fear of punishment, or disgrace. 

In all free governments party is a necessary en- 
gine of good, as well as a frequent instrument of evil. 
Neutrality in politics cannot be safely allowed. In- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, v^C. 675 

difference about political matters, is a selfish, cow- 
ardly insensibility to the public welfare. It was 
enacted by the laws of Solon, that no citizen of 
Athens should be neutral in politics j the sage legis- 
lator wisely concluding that he must be a bad citi- 
zen who did ?wt interest himself in the political af- 
fairs of his country. 



CHAPTER IX. 

But the firmest ground of my conviction that 
Britain will ultimately triumph in this terrible con- 
test with the common enemy of human kind, is the 
great and rapid extension of Evangelical Religion 
throughout the whole of her dominions, for some 
years past. 

I am fully aware of all the sneers and taunts to 
which I expose myself by this open and unequivocal 
declaration. The appellations oi pur it any fanatic, 
methodisty and so forth, will no doubt be most 
abundantly at my service, from a vast variety of cri- 
tics, of every different gradation of talent and know- 
ledge; but all united in one common point, the 
most deadly hatred to the religion of Jesus Christ, 
In a matter, however, which I believe, know, and 
feel to be true, I shall endeavor to arm myself with 



57^ HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

patience, alike against the feeble sneer of the unfled- 
ged, puny witling, and the deeper gashings of well- 
disciplined but malignant genius. 

I indeed rejoice in the late and present diffusion 
of evangelical religion over the British empire, in 
all her sects and denominations, both nationally 
established and dissenting, as the surest pledge 
that Divine Providence will enable her piety, wis- 
dom, and valor, finally to beat down all the ag- 
gressions and resistance of her formidable foe. 

As God generally brings about the execution 
of his own great purposes on earth by the inter- 
vention of secondary means, I expect the final 
coercion of the overgrown power of France, to be 
accomplished by the Divine blessing on the judi- 
cious and heroic exertions of Britain in the cause 
of all social virtue and happiness against the de- 
stroyer of every hope of man. 

By spreading the light of the gospel over the 
east and west, and upon the African continent, 
Britain is preparing the way for the introduction 
of the blessings of civilization into vast portions of 
the globe, which have hitherto been benighted in 
the thickest darkness of barbarity, ignorance, and 
superstition. She has also, by the extension of 
evangelism over her own more immediate territo- 
ry in the British isles, exalted, adorned, and 
strengthened all the bulwarks of her civil polity j 
by erecting a purer and a higher standard of mo- 
ral obligation j by quickening industry in all its 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &e. 577 

branches; and by pourins^the light of knowledge 
in a clear and more ample stream over the minds 
of her people. 

It is righteousness which exalteth a natioHj 
draws down the blessing of heaven upon it, in- 
creases all the products and enjoyments of peace, 
and renders a people irresistibly ])owerful in war 
against all foreign enemies. It is a remarkable 
fact, that at the battle of Trafalgar, the seamen 
who on board Lord Nelson's own ship displayed 
the most signal instances of cool and determined 
intrepidity, were a little knot of evangelical sailors, 
vvhom the admiral would never suffer to be distur- 
bed in their devotions, alleging — " that for punc- 
tual and skilful discharge of duty, and for terrible 
courage in fighting the enemy, iViese honest Metho- 
dists had not their equals in the whole British 
navy." 

Nor should it be forgotten how terrible England 
was to all her foes during the time of Cromwell^ 
when a great portion of the nation was evangeli- 
cal ; and how soon she bowed her head to the dust 
after Charles the second had introduced the foul 
and feculent tide of irreligion, and its inseparable 
concomitants profligacy and immorality, into eve- 
ry corner of the land ; then the people were quick- 
ly dispirited and despised ; and the government 
itself was a hireling pens ione?^ of the French king. 

It has been long, and is now the prevailing 
fashion, to represent the religion of the puritans-, 

4 E 



578 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

at the period to which I allude, as enfirelij consist- 
ing of cant and hypocrisy ; but it should be re- 
membered that the extent of hypocrisy must al- 
ways be regulated by that of true religion. If re- 
ligion had not been generally spread over the 
community, there could have been no effectual de- 
mand for extensive hypocrisy, which in itself is 
never any thing more than ihe homage that vice 
pays to virtue. If the great body of the people 
had not highly valued religion, it could never have 
been worth the whde of the leading staiesmen of 
those days to play the hypocrite, and feign them- 
selves pious in order to become acceptable in the 
eyes of the nation. 

If the statesmen of the present dsiy m Europe 
and in America do not find it necessary to conceal 
their utter disregard for all seriousness and reli- 
gion, but can afford to avow their principles of 
specvdative arnl practical infidelity, it only proves 
that there is too little religion in their respective 
communities to compel them to wear the mask of 
hypocrisy, and to assume the semblance of that 
piety which is very generally d.ffused ; in a word, 
it only proves that the hosts of infidels are now be- 
come more numerous and daring than they were 
in some former ages. 

Do I say that religion rw7/ ensure the protection 
and blessing of Divine Pi evidence upon Britain? 
Nay, but it Adt^ ensured this blessing and this pro- 
tection. To what other cause than the signal 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 579 

blessing of Almighty God can the ingenuity of 
man attribute it, that Britain has stood erect and 
lofty; has enlarged the borders of her dominions j 
has increased in wealth, industry, and power be- 
yond all example; has excelled in intelligence, 
piety, morals, valor, enterprise, civilization, know- 
ledge, in every nobler virtue and every polished 
grace; while the other nations of Europe have 
bowed their necks beneath the bloody dominion 
of frantic and impious France ; while France her- 
self has been for a series of years, and is now, Jt 
prey to a wide-wasting desolation, to which no 
tongue can give utterance, which no imagination 
can conceive ; her whole people let loose from 
every salutary restraint of religion and of moral 
obligation, and presenting the hideous, loathsome 
spectacle of one entire mass of systematic and le- 
galized corruption ; her agriculture neglected ; 
her external commerce annihilated ; her manufac- 
tures drooping; her science and literature darken- 
ed almost to extinction; her whole community 
groaning under the most cruel and remorseless 
tyranny that ever bent the spirit of man to the 
earth; her sons dragged in chains to whiten with 
their bones, and fatten with their blood, the soil 
of other lands; while her deserted widows and 
her fatherless babes lie rotting in unburied heaps 
throughout every nook and corner of her swollen 
and overgrown empire. 

Look at the contrast- — look at Britain ; see all 



580 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

her children protected in their equal rights by the 
unstained administration of equal justice ; the full 
security of life, of liberty, and of property, pre- 
served to all ; a continual accumulation of wealth 
in all the departn)ents of her dominions; an im- 
proved and improving system of agriculture ; an 
extensive and extending commerce ; manufactures 
thriving and increasing beyond all former parallel ; 
the arts liberally patronised; science in all its 
branches promoted ; her lands, canals, houses, riv- 
ers, all presenting the most unequivocal proofs of 
incessantly progressive industry and prosperity; 
her people progressive in pure religion, and sound 
morals, steady in their habits and manners; the 
enlargement of her territorial possessions by hon- 
orable conquest ; her inexhaustible slock of tal- 
ents, the living genius of freedom and intelligence, 
which explores the powers and recesses of nature 
to abridge and to embellish the productions of art ; 
rendering knowledge tributary to the wants, the 
comforts, and the enjoyments, not only of her own 
offsprmg, but of the whole human race. 

Look at this contrast, and then say that the 
hand of divine Providence is jiot in this matter. 

Mr. Burke, in the eighth volume of his works, 
p. 235—200, assigns the following causes of the 
French revolution. 

" The revolution in France had the relation of 
France to other nations as one of its principal ob- 
jects, The changes made by that revolution were 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 581 

not made the better to accommodate her to the 
old and usual relations, but to produce new ones. 
The revolution was made, not to make France 
free^ but to make her formidable ; not to make 
her a nciii^hbor, but a mistress; not to make her 
more o'lservant o( laws, but to put her in a con- 
dition to impose them. To make France truly 
formidable it was necessary that France should be 
new-modelled. 

*■■ They who have not followed the train of the 
late proceedings, have been led by deceitful re- 
presentations, (whi( h deceit made a part in the 
plan) to conceive that this totally new model of 
a state, in which noihing escaped a change, was 
made with a view to its infernal relations only. 

" In the revolution of France two sorts of men 
were principally concerned in giving a character 
and determination to its pursuits : the philosophers 
and the politicians. They took different ways, 
but they met in the same end. The philosophers 
had one predominant object, which they pursued 
with a fanatical fury ; that is, the utter extirpation 
of religion. To that every question of empire 
was subordinate. They had rather domineer in 
a parish of atheists, than rule over a Christian 
world. Their temporal ambition was wholly sub- 
servient to their proselytizing spirit in which they 
were not exceeded by Mahomet himself 

They who have made but superficial studies in 
the natural history of the human mind, have been 



582 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

taught to look on religions opinions as the only 
cause of enthusiastic zeal, and sectarian propaga- 
tion. But there is no doctrine whatever, on which 
men can warm, that is not capable of the very 
same effect. 

" The social nature of man impels him to pro- 
pagate his principles, as much as physical im- 
pulses urge him to propagate his kind. I'he pas^ 
sions give zeal and vehemence. The understand- 
ing bestows design and system. The whole man 
moves under the discipline of his opinions. Re- 
ligion is among the most powerful causes of en- 
thusiasm. When any thing concerning it be- 
comes an object of much meditation, it cannot be 
indifferent to the mind. 

" They who do not love religion, hate it. The 
rebels to God perfectly abhor the author of their 
being. They hate him with all their heart, with 
all their mind, with all their soul, and with all 
their strength. He never presents himself to their 
thoughts, but to menace and alarm them. They 
cannot strike the sun out of heaven ; but they are 
able to raise a smouldering smoke that obscures 
him from their own eyes. Not being able to re- 
venge themselves on God, they have a delight ill 
vicariously defacing, degrading, torturing, and 
tearing in pieces his image in man. 

" Let no one judge of them by what he has con- 
ceived of them, when they were not incorporated, 
and had no lead. They were then only passen- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 583 

gers in a common vehicle. They were then carried 
along with the general motion of religion in the 
community, and, without being aware of it, par- 
took of its influence. In that situation, at worst, 
their nature was left free to counter-work their 
principles. They despaired of giving any very 
general currency to their opinions. They consi- 
dered them as a reserved privilege for the chosen 
{ew. 

" But vfhen the possibility of dominion, lead, 
and propagation presented itself; and that the 
ambition which so often before had made them 
hypocrites, might ratiier gain than lose by a da- 
ring avowal of their sentiments ; then the nature 
of this infernal spirit, which has evil for its good, 
appeared in its full perfection. Nothing indeed 
but the possession of some power can with any 
certainty discover what at the bottom is the true 
character of any man. 

" AVithout reading the speeches of Vergniaud, 
Frangais of NantZy Isnardi and some others of 
that sort, it would not be easy to conceive the 
passion, rancour and malice of their tongues 
and hearts. They worked themselves up to a per- 
fect frenzy against religion and all its professors. 
They tore the reputation of the clergy to pieces 
by their infuriated declamations and invectives, 
before they lacerated their bodies by their massa- 
cres. This fanatical atheism left out, we omit the 
principal feature in the French revolution. 



584 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

" The other sort of men were the politicians. 
To them, who had little or not at all refle* ted on 
the subject, religion in itself was no object of 
Jove or hatred. They disbelieved it, and that was 
all. Neutral with regard to that object, they 
took the side which in the present state of things 
might best aiiswer their purposes. Th' y soon 
found that they could not do without the philoso- 
phers ; and the philosophers soon made them sen- 
sible tiiat the destruction of religion was to sup- 
ply them with means of conqaest ; first at home, 
and then abroad. 

" The philosophers were the active internal 
agitators, and supplied the spirit and principles j 
the politicians gave the pr^cV/c^/ direction. Some- 
times the one predominated in the composition, 
sometimes the other. The only difference be- 
tween them, was In the necessity of concealing 
the general design for a time, and in their deal- 
ing with foreign nations; the fanatics going straight 
forward and openly, the politicians by the surer 
mode of zig-zag. In the course of events, this, 
among other causes, produced fierce and bloody 
contentions among them. But at the bottom, 
they thoroughly agreed in all the objects of am- 
bition and irreligion, and substantially in all the 
means of promoting these ends. 

" Without question, to bring about the unex- 
ampled event of the French revolution, the con- 
currence of a very great number of views and 



. BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 585 

passions was necessary. In that stupendous 
work, no one principle by which the human mind 
may have its faculties at once invigorated and 
depraved, was left unemployed ; but I can speak 
it to a certanty, and support it by undoubted 
proofs, that the ruling principle of those who 
acted in the revolution as statesmen, had the ex- 
terior aggrandizement of France as their uUimate 
end in the most minute part of the internal chan- 
ges which were made. 

" It is not" easy to form a conception of the 
general eagerness of the active and energetic part 
of the French nation, itself the most active antl en- 
ergetic of all nations, previous to its revolution, up- 
on that subject. 1 he foreign speculators in France, 
under the old government, were twenty to one of 
the same class then or now in England ; and 
nearly all of them most emulously set forward the 
revolution. The whole official system, particularly 
in the diplomatic part, the regulars, the irregu- 
lars, down to the clerks in office, a most nume- 
rous corps, co-operated in it. All the intriguers 
in foreign politics, all the spies, all the intelligen- 
cers, actually or late in function, all the candi-- 
dates for that sort of employment, acted solel}j 
upon that principle. 

" On that system of aggrandizement, there was 
but one mind ; but two violent factions arose 
about the means. The first wished France dives- 
ted from the politics of the continent, to attend 

4f 



586 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

solely to her marine, to feed it by an increase of 
conimerce, and thereby to overpower England on 
her own element. They contended, that if Eng- 
land were disabled, the powers on the continent of 
Europe would fall mto then proper subordination ; 
that it was England which deranged the whole 
continental system of Europe. 

•' The others, who were by far the more nume- 
rous, though not the most outwardly prevalent at 
court, considered this plan for France as contrary 
to her genius, her situation, and her natural 
means. They agreed as to the ultimate object, 
the reduction of the British power, and if possible, 
its naval power; but they considered an ascendency 
on the European continent as a necessary prelimi- 
nary to that undertaking." 

No man living can possibly entertain a more 
entire veneration for the opinion of Mr. Burke, 
on every subject illumined by his incomparable 
understanding, qui pd'ne omnia tractavit, et nihil 
tetigit quod nan ornavit. It is, therefore, with ex- 
treme reluctance that I venture for a moment to 
dissent from his conclusions as to the causes of 
the French revolution. 

I entirely concur in the position that the 
French philosophists were a set of shallow-brained 
politicians, mainly bent upon the utter extirpation 
of all religion ; and that the French statesmen, be- 
ing much longer-sighted than the philosopherSy 
used them for their own purposes, all of which 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 587 

were intensely and undeviatingly directed towards 
the exterior aggrandizement of France. 

Aad yet these two classes of men, the politi- 
cians and the philosoj.hists were not the cause<^ ofy 
b'lt only main movers in the French revolution. 
These causes were laid broad and deep in the pre- 
existing state of society on the continent of Eu- 
rope, and more particularly iji France ; of which 
these two orders of men availed themselves for 
the purpose of promoting their respective de- 
signs. This predisposing state of society was 
brought about by the decay and almost entire ex- 
tinction o^ the Christian religion, which had beea 
progressively and rapidly declining for a full cen- 
tury previous to the French revolution, all over 
the European continent. 

Popery wa^?/ra//?/ and necessarily conducts the na- 
tions who possess it, into practical and speculative 
atheism. The few men of sense who happen to live 
in any one country in the same age, after a slight 
examination of its mummeries, tricks, frauds and ab- 
surdities, disbelieve it altogether ; and having no pu- 
rer standard of religion to examme, they plunge 
themselves at once into speculative atheism, and as a 
necessary consequence, free themselves from all the 
restraints of moral obligation. For certainly if 
there be no God, and no future state, man cannot be 
accountable hereafter for any of his actions on earth ; 
and is therefore at full liberty to do whatever he is 
willing and able to do, provided that he does not 



588 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

endanger his own pprsonal snfety or convenience. 
Thus the whole system of morals is reduced to a 
mere calculation i^i individual expedimnj j there is 
no longer any general rule of morality ; but every 
different individual has a different code of moral 
obliiration, which is perpetually fitted to his own 
convenience, caprice, and inclination. 

In the many who never think, and were never in- 
tended by the condition of their nature to think, 
popery by its ready absolution of all sin, on the pay- 
ment of a stipulated sum, produces pretty uniformly 
a course oi practical atheism ; and equally sets them 
loose from all the bonds of moral restraint, as it 
does their more reflecting and speculative brethren. 

With the freedom from all moral obligation are 
inseparably cotmected -ireat general profligacy and 
want if industry. The slightest glance at the actual 
condition of popish and protestant countries will 
prove the truth of this position. The industry, civi- 
lization, and virtue of England, Scotland, and pro- 
testant Ireland, are incalculably superior to the po- 
pish part of E in. The contrast is also peculiarly 
strikmg in Germany and Switzerland, where the 
diffeivnt territories being intermingled, the traveller 
continually passes from a protestant to a popish 
country. 

Poverty, filth, idleness, and profligacy invariably 
point out the influence of papal superstition ; and 
opulence, cleanliness, industry and good order as 
uniformly result from the flourishing condition of 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. .589 

prof esf an ism. The same contrast holds with equal 
force as to the diffusion of intelligence, which gene- 
rally takes place in protestant districts; while the 
thick darkness of ignorance envelops the inhabi- 
tants of popish regions. The number of malefac- 
tors and criminals in popish far outweighs that in 
protestant couniries, other things being equal. For 
a fiilland ample investigation of this sul>ject, con- 
sult " An Essay on the Spirit and Influence of the 
JReformation of Luther ;" the work which obtained 
the prize on the question proposed in 1802, by the 
National Institute of France ; written by M. Vil- 
lers (himself a revolutionary atheist,) and published 
at Paris, in 1804. 

The progress of declining protestanism in a coun- 
try is somewhat different, but its termination is the 
same ; namely, in entire projiigacy. For the mode 
by which protestant churches contrive to preach 
themselves gradually into deism, see" The History 
ofthe Church of Christ," by Joseph Milner, M. A. 
American edition, published in 1809, vol. 1, p. 99, 

129, 

It is to be remembered that although nominally 
protestant countries often contrive to degenerate 
from Christianity into what they call deism, yet the 
practical effects to society are the same as those of 
atheism, between which and deism there is only some 
slight speculative difference about a first cause, or 
no first cause. But both the deist and the atheist 
hold themselves to be alike free from all moral obli- 



590 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

gation ; neither of them considers himself as ac- 
count able to any superior divine tribunal hereafter, 
for h s actions on earth. And consequently deists 
and atheists are equally prone to commit any spe- 
cies of immorality and crime, that may suit their 
convenience, or comport with their inchnation. 

This practical identify of deism and atheism 
must be undt rstood as confined to countries where 
divine revelation is known, and where the gospel is 
or may be preached ; for in pagan countries where 
the sacred scriptures are unknown, the deists are 
much more under the influence of moral obligation 
than are the atheisfSy in consequence of follouing 
more steadily and with greater honesty the dictates 
o{ natural coiiscie7ice,'w\\\c\i they in common with 
all men, whether sitting under the light of revela- 
tion or not, possess as a monitor within tljeir own 
bosoms. 

The celebrated Doctor John Owen, in his Trea- 
tise on Spiritual MindednesSy p. 175, 12mo. edition, 
observes that the greatest iniquity and corruption 
are not to be sought for, neither will they be found 
among the heathens^ whether of savage or of compa- 
ratively civilized life. These idolatrous nations are 
kept within some bounds of wickedness by the light 
of reason, and by the operations of natural con- 
science- But the greatest corruption and iniquity, 
the most horrible blasphemy, the most atrocious 
crimes, the most unrelenting, cold-blooded, heart- 
less cruelty are to be found in the thoughts, words. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 591 

and actions of injidels in those countries, where the 
blessings of revelation are accorded to man. All the 
crimes of all the pagans on the whole earth durmg 
the lapse of an entire century do not equal in magni" 
tude and horror the thousandth part of the baseness 
and atrocity of the French during the latt twenty 
years. 

The reason assigned by Doctor Owen for the 
greater criminality of the infi'lel, in Christian coun- 
tries, than that of the idolatrous pagan is, that Di- 
vine Providence suffers the lesser^ the natural light, 
of conscience to be extinguished in those who ivil- 
fully reject all belief in the greater light of revela- 
tion ; whence they give themselves up to the com- 
mission of every iniquity which their hardened hearts 
can devise, and which their murderous hands can 
perpetrate. 

I am well aware that many deists in Christian 
countries do in words deny the justice of this repre- 
sentation, and affect to consider themselves as ac- 
countable for their " deeds done in the flesh" to the 
Supreme Being ; but upon being closely questioned, 
and made to follow out their own principles into 
their ultimate and legitimate consequences, they iri- 
variabli) confirm by facts what they contradict in 
terms ; they invariably swamp themselves in practi- 
cal atheism, leaving their Deity to slumber supinely 
in apathy and indifference, while they pursue the 
career which appetite impels, or convenience dic- 
tates, without a7iy regard to the consequences that 
might accrue in a future life. 



592 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

For a full commentary on this position consult 
what are called " The philosophical works of Lord 
Bolingbroke." 

Now hardened infidelity, whether it be called de- 
ism or atheism, no matter which, and the most 
abandoned pn fligacy, shrinking from the commis- 
sion of no crime however base and atrocious, is pre- 
cisely the definition of y^coZ/Zw^Vw. For a conclu- 
sive proof of the correctness of this definition I most 
confidently appeal to the malignant unbelief and in- 
famous character o^ every thorough-paced, genuirre 
jacobin, now resident in France, in Britain, in these 
United States, or in any other country ; always in- 
deed bearing in mind the broad distinction between 
the well meaning and deceived democrat, and the 
crafty, dtccivhtg jncobin. 

Precisely in this situation, namely, that of po- 
pery, having naturally gravitated into atheism, 
and that of protestantism having for want of all 
proper and wholesome church discipline, degene- 
rated into deism, was nearly the whole continent 
of Europe for many years previous to the French 
revolution; and profligacy and intelligence being 
more universally diffused over France than over 
any other nation of continental Europe, the hor- 
rible explosion necessarily took place there in the 
first instance. 

It was this state of society in which infidelity 
had untied all the ligaments of moral obligation^ 



BANKRUPTCV^ OF BRITAIN, &C. 593 

and let loose all the depravity of the human heart 
to find uncontrolled vent in the commission of 
every enormity, that made an effectual demand for 
the lahois and writings of the French philosophists -, 
of Voltaire, Rousseau, D'Alembert, Condorcet, 
Diderot, and many other most unprincipled men, 
who devoted their great talents and greater infor- 
mation to the sole purpose of covering the earth 
with atheism and crime. 

Of this state of society, and of the efforts of 
these infidel-fanatics, the statesmen of France 
availed themselves, in order to guide, (not to causey 
for the causes were found in the universal protli- 
gacy, which would have produced a revolution, 
that is, an entire destruction of all social order, if 
no one politician had ever existed in France) the 
career of the revolution towards the exterior ag- 
grandizement of the great nation. A conclusive 
proof of the general depravity in France is the 
ease and readiness with which parents denounced 
their children, children dragged their parents to 
the guillotine, and no tie of kindred blood pre- 
vented the assassin's knife, even in the very first 
stages of the revolution ; which event therefore did 
not cause the profligacy ; it was previously exist- 
ing, and itself caused the revolutionary explo- 
sion. 

Nor shall we wonder at this, when we remem- 
ber, that scarcely any man in Paris, for some 
years previous to the revolution, could summon 

4 G 



594 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

up sufficient assurance to call the children, who 
ran about his house, and bore his namet his own 
offspring. 

A venerable American statesman now living, 
while he was minister from the United States to 
France, had an opportunity of seeing a French phi- 
losopher A\e in Paris ; the Frenchman died vi iihthe 
same stupid, brutal insensibility as that with which 
a dog or a pig would lie down and breathe his last 
breath. The American envoy observed, that a 
brother philosopher of the man who had just died, 
stood looking on the dead body with as much un- 
concern as if he had been surveying a dead calf 
suspended in the shambles. He therefore enter- 
ed into a conversation with this eiilightened being, 
of which the following is a very short example : 
the letter A stands for the American, and F for 
the Frenchman. 

" A. Do you feel no anxiety about Xhe future 
condition of your friend who lies dead here? 

F, No ; there is no future state ; Voltaire has^ 
settled that point long since. 

A. Do you think then that God will not call 
men to account hereafter for their actions on 
earth .? 

F. No; there is no God ; Diderot has clearly 
demonstrated this matter. 

A. If there be no God then, there can be no 
moral obligation ; and if so, how is human society 
to be held together ? 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 595 

F. By the enlightened self-interest of the very 
few philosophers^ who will govern the canaille, the 
multitude, by terror.^'' 

Mr. Wyndham, in his never to be forgotten 
speech against the base peace of Amiens, says, 
*' the authors of the French revolution wished to 
destroy morality and religion. They wished these 
things as ends; but they wished them also as 
means to a higher and more extensive design. 
They wished for a double empire; an empire of 
opinion and an empire of political power; and 
they used the one of these as a mean of effecting 
the other. What are we to think of a country, 
that having struck out of men's minds, as far as it 
has the power to do so, all sense of religion and all 
belief of a future state, has struck out of its system 
of civil polity the institution of marriage ; that has 
formally, professedly, and by law, established the 
intercourse of the sexes upon the footing of an 
unrestrained concubinage ; that has turned the whole 
country into one universal brothel P" 

The necessary and natural progress of the hor- 
rible anarchy which sprung up from the subver- 
sion of all moral duty, and all social order, to its 
termination in military despotism in France, is 
most impressively described by Sir James MTn- 
tosh in his profoundly philosophical and political 
speech on the trial of M. Peltier in the year 1803. 

" The French revolution began with great and 
fatal errors- These errors produced atrocious 



596 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

crimes. A mild and feeble monarchy was suc- 
ceeded by bloody anarchy, which very shortly 
gave birth to military despotism. France in a 
few years described the whole circle of human so- 
ciety. 

"All this was in the order of nature. When 
everv principle of authority, and civil discipline; 
when every principle which enables some men to 
command, and disposes others to obey, was extir- 
pated from the mind by atrocious theories, and 
still more atrocious examples ; when every old in- 
stitution was trampled down with contumely, and 
every new institution covered in its cradle with 
blood ; when the principle of property itself, the 
sheet-anchor of society was annihilated ; when in 
the persons of the new possessors, whom the po- 
verty of language obliges us to call proprietors, 
it was contaminated in its source by robbery and 
murder, and it became separated from that edu- 
cation and those manners ; from that general pre- 
sumption of superior knowledge, and more 
scrupulous probity, which form its only liberal ti- 
tles to respect ; when the people were taught to 
despise every thing old, and compelled to detest 
every thing new ; there remained only one prin- 
ciple strong enough to hold society together ; a 
principle utterly incompatible indeed with liber- 
ty, and unfriendly to civilization itself; a tyran- 
nical and barbarous principle ; but in that mise- 
rable condition of human affairs, a refuge from 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 59? 

still more intolerable evils ; I mean the principle 
of military power, which gains strength from that 
confusion in which all the other elements of so- 
ciety are dissolved, and which in these terrible 
extremities is the cement that preserves it from 
total destruction." 

But although the military despotism of France 
at present holds nearly the whole continent of 
Europe in chains, it will not probably prevent 
that terrible re-action upon itself, arising from the 
present confused, unsocial, irreligious, immoral, 
condition of Europe ; all the nations of which 
perhaps, ere long will be destined to run the 
same bloody career of revolutionary warfare, up- 
on which Spain has just entered. France has 
hitherto been the great instrument, in the hand of 
divine Providence, to inflict vengeance and pun- 
ishment, not only on her own apostacy and ini- 
quity, but also on the iniquity and apostacy of 
the rest of continental Europe. And her sys- 
tem of conscription, her destruction of all pro- 
ductive industry, her cutting away her own inter- 
nal resources, peculiarly fit her for experiencing 
much more extensive and wide-wasting calamity, 
than she has yet suffered ; when the day of retri- 
bution shall arrive. 

Mankind have been permitted by Divine Prov- 
idence to make three great and decisive experi- 
ments of the effects necessarily resulting from 



598 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

their own uncontrolled depravity, on a very wide 
and ample field. 

1. A revelation of the only true and pure reli- 
gion was made to our first parents, whose posterity 
soon swerved into the most horrible impiety and 
profligacy. Tlie flood swept away these rebels 
against God; and a second promulgation of the 
only genuine and undefiled religion was made 
through the instrumentality of Noah, whose pos- 
terity also, following the course of the natural de- 
pravity of the human heart, and of man's free agen- 
cy, speedily plunged into all the absurdities and 
horrors of paganism, which overspread the whole 
world, excepting one little spot where the oracles 
of God were miraculous preserved. The necessa- 
ry and universal fruits of paganism were to cover 
the earth with the most awful darkness, ignorance, 
profligacy, and oppression. 

Si. In the fulness of time our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ came to introduce the last and most 
perfect dispensation of grace and truth, called in 
the sacred scriptures " the kingdom of heaven,^ and 
within a few years after his ascension the gospel 
was spread over nearly the whole surface of the 
earth. From the purity of evangelical doctrine 
and its imeparahle companion, sound morality, 
men gradually declined into superstition and error, 
until popery covered the world with darkness and 
profligacy. 

3. The reformation, by Luther^ by Calvin, and 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, kc. 599 

some other chosen instruments of Divine Provi* 
dence, again opened to mankind the sources of 
pure, evangelical light, which also soon became 
again darkened, and almost entirely extinguished, 
at least on the European continent, by the rise, 
and rapid and general progress oibifideUfyy which 
third great, and far more terrible experiment in 
its destructive consequences than those of pagan- 
ism and popery combined, is now running its 
career of desolation over the miserable remnant 
of the Christian world. 

From the progress of infidelity, cutting away all 
the ties of moral obligation, breaking up every 
great cement of society, and scattering its frag- 
ments in frantic derision and malignant scorn to 
the four winds of heaven ; it cannot be, but that 
the whole continent of Europe must ere long pass 
through the fiery ordeal of the most fearful and 
bloody convulsions ; tearing up by the roots all 
the little remains of civil government, and scatter- 
ing to pieces those potentates, princedoms, thrones, 
and dominations, which have hitherto appeared to 
withstand the pitiless pelting of the revolutionary 
tempest. 

Into what forms of polity, whether of vague, 
weak, unpurposed democracy ; of well-poised, 
energetic, and lasting aristocracy ; or of unrelent- 
ing, murderous military despotism, these terrible 
disorders and conflicts shall subside ; into how 
many and how great principalities and powers the 



600 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

European continent shall be ultimately divided 
and subdivided, is not given to human wisdom to 
foresee. 

In Britain, however, a very different process has 
taken place from that which has laid waste, and is 
still desolating the continent of Europe, She ear- 
ly embraced the reformation in name and in effect ; 
in England and in Scotland popery gradually gave 
way to the light of evangelical truth; and civiliza- 
tion, order and morality follov/ed as invariable ef- 
fects from a producing cause. In Ireland, indeed, 
the greater portion of the people are still more 
than half barbarous, idle, uncivilized, and profli- 
gate, from the prevalence of popery ; which is to 
my mind one of the strongest amongst innumera- 
ble arguments for the emancipation of the Irish pa- 
pists, that so many millions of human beings might 
have the onlij opportunity which man can give of 
emerging from barbarous superstition into civili- 
zation and order, by the diffusion of instruction, 
by the preaching of the gospel, by the full parti- 
cipation of equal political rights and privileges. 

From the reign of Charles the second, religion 
in Britain gradually declined to a very low ebb, 
until the middle of the reign of George the second, 
when a great revival took place, and from that 
time down to the pres^'Ui houwvifal, practical reW- 
gion has been, and is, gaining ground in ewevy 
part of the British dominions. And it has been 
attended uniformly by an increase of industr}^ 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 601 

social order, sound morals, intelligence and civil 
liberty. 

At no time however, even amidst the most griev- 
ous declensions of serious religion, have v\\e funda- 
mental doctrines of the gospel suffered in Britain 
those impious and destructive perversions, which 
they invariably underwent on the continent of Eu- 
rope. This great and inestimable benefit has 
arisen partly from there having always been a rem- 
nant of ^iY/7?ife//c«/ teachers and professors in the 
national churches of England and of Scotland, and 
the various other Christian sects which are spread 
over the British empire ; partly from the ortJwdox 
articles and creeds of the British national churches 
maintaining strong and perpetual bulwarks against 
all the corruptions, pollutions, and innovations 
of heresy ; and partly from the happy faculty 
which the heretics themselves in Britain have al- 
ways possessed of speedily preaching their places 
of worship empty, and leaving only the pews and 
benches to be reasoned into their peculiar mode 
of explaining away, and frittering into nothing, 
all the essential and fundamental doctrines of the 
sacred scriptures. 

A decisive testimony of the social benefits deri- 
ved to a nation from the prevalence of Christianity 
is borne by Frederic the second of Prussia, who 
was himself a most incorrigible infidel. A cler- 
gyman in Prussian Poland, one of the many myri- 
ads of continental divines, who had reasoned 

4 H 



60^ HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

themselves, and prear^hed their flocks into demn, 
sent Frederic a letter, stating that he, the Polish 
pastor, had discovered ./?/>vw«£7 arguments against 
the authenticity and credibility of the Old and 
New Testaments. The king returned for answer, 
that the parson was doubtless very ingenious and 
very philosophical in having discovered fifty new 
arguments against the Bible; and probably that 
by hard labor and deep study, he might be able 
to find out a hundred and fifty more ; but if he 
dared to disorder the community by publishing one of 
them he should be hanged up {tout suite) forthwith. 

A conclusive proof that the pre-existing state of 
society in France produced the revolution in 
that country, is, that the same experiment was 
made to introduce jacobin-atheism into Britain; 
but failed, owing to the superior energy of the 
government ; the pure religion of a great portion 
of the people ; the sound sense, good morals, and 
steady habits of the nation ; making no etfectual 
demand for the universal diffusion of impiety, and 
the total destruction of all social order, virtue^ 
prosperity and happiness. 

The sa?ne experiment was also made in the 
United States, where it has mo^>t fatally suc- 
ceeded. In this country jacobin-atheism has ta- 
ken very wide and deep root, owing to a variety 
of circumstances, which at present it is not my 
business to state. Suffice it to say, that the very 
same effects have been produced by this horrible 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &e. 603 

experiment in America, as were produced in. 
France, allowing for the different condition, moral 
and physical, of the two countries. 

Thomas Paine's '■^ Age of Reason'* was so indus- 
triously circulated throughout the Union by the 
leaders of the deuiocrytic, then the opposition, 
now the government-party of this country, as 
very materially to lessen the annual average sale 
of bibles in America for some years. 

I am very desirous of not being misunderstood, 
as wishing to represent the prevalence of Christian- 
ity in the United States as at a low ebb. I firmly 
believe that, in proportion to its population, there 
is af present as much religion iu America as in 
Britain. But great numbers of really religious 
people in this country have been, and are nozv, 
seduced by the jacobins ; as many religious peo- 
ple were at one time so seduced in Britain by the 
jacobins there. 

In fact, the wisdom and energy of the British 
government were the all-effectual means of stop- 
ping the progress of jacobinism in that country; 
and after it had been checked, when the whole 
nefarious plots of the real jacobins were gradually 
disclosed, the sober, serious part of the commu- 
nity shrunk back with horror from the whole Jaco- 
binical scheme. But if the government had not 
kept the monster at bay, and exposed his hideous 
deformity, many thousands of the best-intentioned 
people in England wou,ld have continued, as they 



604 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

had beoim, to help forward the designs of jacobin- 
ism ; until the whole mischief had been effected, 
when they could only have wept over their own 
short-sighted folly on their way to the guillotine. 

In Ireland also, many plain, serious Christians 
were duped into being enrolled in the ranks of 
United Irishmen. Had our American govern- 
ment ^osse^sedi sufficient strength to wring the 
neck of this Gallo-popish-iji/idel serpent, the Uni- 
ted States would 7iozv have been comparatively 
sound from the taint of jacobinism. 

At this moment, however, the jacobin mob at 
Baltimore, in Maryland, is not one iota inferior 
in cowardly cruelty, and brutal ferocity, to the 
Paris mobs under Robespierre and Marat. Some 
few mouths since, the Baltimore democrats strip- 
ped a poor wretch naked, covered him with tar 
and feathers, and tore one of his eyes out of its 
bleeding socket, for having said — " that he hoped 
Bonaparte would never be able to conquer and 
enslave England !" Eight of these rioters were 
taken up, and indicted. During their trial, the 
mob surrounded the court house, and threatened 
to murder the lawyers, judges, and jury, if their 
brother-patriots were not immediately acquit- 
ted. 

The prisoners however were found guilty, and 
condemned to pay a paltry fine, and be imprisoned 
for a few months. Mr. Wright, the Governor, the 
Chief Executive Magistrate of the State of Mary- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 606 

land, then issued his pardon to these jacobin-but- 
chers ; and pubhshed his " reasons" for so doing in 
the newspapers. The reason which this Chief Ma- 
gistrate of an independent, sovereign State assign- 
ed for pardoning these destroyers of all social order 
and civil security, was — that he did not, in the pre- 
sent critical state of the world, deem it expedient to 
check the generous enthusiasm of the people of 
Maryland in favor of liberty, (meaning France) ; 
and therefore he pardoned those bloodhounds, for 
having wantonly and wilfully maimed a fellow-citi- 
zen for life ; and invited them to continue their 
murderous depredations upon the peace, property, 
life, and limb of every honest and respectable per- 
son in Baltimore, and elsewhere; lest for want of 
exercise, their " generous enthusiasm in favor of li- 
berty''' might be checked. 

South of the Potomac the American States are 
very generally Jacobinical, in the full sense of the 
term; namely, deadly enemies to religion ; despisers 
of all moral obligation ; cruel, fraudulent, and fero- 
cious. 

In Pennsylvania, this last spring, 1809, the demo- 
crats actually chose one Simon Snyder for the State- 
Governor, avowedly because he was a man of jio 
talents or information ; declaring in all their news- 
papers, handbills, pamphlets, speeches, and club- 
resolutions, how very fatal all learning and sense 
invariably were to the " pure cause of democracy y" 
wherefore thoy invited their compatriots to elect the 



606 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

*' enlightened democrat Simon Snyder ; and put 
down all schoolsy and colleges, and seminaries of 
learning !" 

The ^first- fruits of this precious election were, — 
that Governor Snyder called out a detachment of 
the Pennsylvanian militia, and ordered it to oppose 
the execution of a process of attachment issued from 
the Supreme Federal Judicial Court of the United 
States. Accoidingly the militia marched under 
General Bright, and at the point of the bayonet pre- 
vented the Marshal from serving the process. This 
heroic atchievement was performed in the middle of 
the day, in the open street of the city of Philadel- 
phia. Governor Snyder, not contented with this 
act of sedition at least, if not treason, against the 
General Government of the Union, wrote and pub- 
lished in the newspapers a letter, setting forth his 
** great satisfaction at the puiriofism and intrepidity 
of General Bright and the militia under his com- 
mand, so worthy of the spirit of 1776," &c. Now 
General Bright had some hundreds of militia-soldiers 
under his command, and the Marshal of the Supreme 
Court was only a single individual. So much for 
Governor Snyder's views of courage and patriotism. 

The western States beyond the Alleghany moun- 
tains are universally democratic : among a million 
of specimens which might be easily collected, take 
only one for the sake of brevity. A newspaper at 
Nashville, in the State of Tenessee, dated September 
9l4th, 1809, recommends 9, leading democrat as a 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 60? 

suitable candidate for the State Legislature » be- 
Cause he is a lover of plunder. 

" Mr. Bradford, you are requested to make 
known, through the medium of your paper, that 
Patrick Beagley is a candidate for the Assembly at 
the next election; his sentiments are pure republi- 
licarty and he is decidedly in favor of an equal Ms- 
tribution of property." * 

In Louisiana the storm of Jacobinical desolation 
is gathering fast. In consequence of the late im- 
mense importation of French banditti, black, white, 
and mulatto, from San Domingo, and Cuba, the 
effective population of New Orleans is now in the 
proportion o{ fourteen French to one American; 
and that proportion is daily increasing in favor of 
the French. The democratic Governor of New Or- 
leans industriously puts Frenchmen, who make no 
scruple of openly avowing their contempt and de- 
testation of the Government of the United States, 
into high and responsible offices under that Govern- 
ment. The explosion of a political volcano may 
therefore shortly be expected in Louisiana. 

Indeed those persons who think most anxiously 
and profoundly upon the present aspect of afffiirs in 
this country, are looking forward with the terrible 
certainty of conviction to a repetition of the trage- 
dies of Paris, Nantz, Lyons, and La Vendee, in these 
United States within the lapse of a few years; al- 
lowing indeed for this, that popery and infidelity 
have not yet debased the individual character of 
Americans generally. 



608 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

The great sheet-anchor of hope to this northern 
continent is to be found in the steady habits, the su- 
perior intelhgence, the sober morals, the daring en- 
terprise, and the dauntless intrepidity of the N'ezv- 
England states. Of this, however, the leaders of 
American democracy are fully aware ; and are there- 
fore with all industry and speed cutting axvay that 
sheet-anchor of our safety and our hope by destroy- 
ing all the commerce of these states ; well knowing 
that a merely agricultural people must always be 
too poor, feeble, and widely scattered, ever to make 
any effectual resistance to the desolation of Jacobin- 
ical tyranny which is* rapidly pervading this country., 

Is all this the idle, delusive dream of one entirely 
ignorant of the institutions of democracy, and their 
invariable tendency to anarchy, blood, and slaugh- 
ter ? Nay ; but the scenes daily and hourly passing 
before our eyes are only verifying the predictions 
which the paramount genius and eloquence of Hamil- 
ton were thundering upon us during the last ten or 
fifteen years, before his assassination by Burr. 

Whoever has inclination and leisure to see this 
subject well examined and ably discussed, may con- 
sult the late Fisher Ames's acute and impressive Es- 
say " On the Dangers of American Liberty,'* pub- 
lished in his works, p. 379 — 437, to which I have 
now only time to refer. 

Jacobinism in the United States produces precise- 
ly the same effects that it does every where else ; it 
sours all the charities of life ; it divides father against 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 609 

son, and son against father, and produces the most 
deadly and lasting feuds among kindred. Accord- 
ingly scarcely a numerous family exists in the Union, 
the peace and harmony of which are not cut up by 
the roots in consequence of some of its members 
having swamped themselves in the Serbonian bog of 
democracy. ' 

Nor IS it possible ever to bring a democrat who 
happens to be a professor of Christianity to regulate 
his conduct by the standard of the scriptures. A 
great portion of the democrats throughout the Union 
have already cast away all belief in revelation, and 
with it all regard to moral decency ; but even the 
few who still nominally hnger upon the confines of 
the gospel, cannot be induced to obey its blessed 
precepts of brotherly love and charity, and ofobe- 
dien e to constituted authorities. 

Of this jacobin-irreligious spirit and disposition, 
we have a remarkable instance in the conduct of 
nearly a whole congregation settled in one of our 
neighboring counties in this state of New- York. In 
the year 1795, these pious people, in common with 
their brother-democrats of all denominations, com- 
mitted great violences and disturbances on account 
o{ Mr. Jai/s having concluded a treaty with Britain. 
They paraded the streets, abused their own govern- 
ment, execrated Britain, burned Mr. Jay in effigy, 
and erected hberty-poles with a French red cap on 
their tops, and absurd devices on their bottoms ; 
which liberty poles are standing to this hour, in full 

4i 



610 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

testimony of the stupidity, ignorance, and knavery 
of democracy. 

The minister of the congregation to which I al- 
lude, took occasion one Sunday, during the continu- 
ance of these riots, to read the thirteenth chapter of 
Paurs Epistle to the Heb?'ezvs tor the edification of 
his flock; which being done, a great proportion of 
the congregation grew very angry and decla- 
red, that the New Testament was written on/i/ for 
slaves under a monarchy, and was never intended 
for independent republicans^ 

Indeed this intimate connection between demo- 
cracy and infidelity is so generally understood in our 
New-England states, that when it is asked " what is 
become of such a one, for he never comes to church 
now ?" the answer almost invariably is " Oh, he is 
turned democrat.*' 

I must do the people in our southern states, name- 
ly in Maryland, Virginia, the tv^^o Carolinas, Geor- 
gia, and Louisiana, the justice to say that they are 
more impartial ; for there, in general, the very few 
federalists that are to be found, imitate the laudable 
example of the vast body-jacobin in those districts, in 
their utter disregard of revelation, and their becom- 
ing freedom from all the prejudices of moral res- 
traint. 

In good truth, it requires no great stretch of un- 
derstanding to infer, arguing from the past to the 
future, what will be the eutha?iasia of democracy in 
the United States. We see what it has accomplish- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C, 61 1 

ed in France ; and however we may flatter ourselves 
with " being more etiligkfened and more virtuous 
than the base^ slavish Europeans j" and with our 
mobs " being rational and self-collected^ temperate 
and dignified** with much other unpurposed non- 
sense of the same sort, there can be no doubt that 
the same causes will invariably produce the same ef- 
fects, whenever a favorable opportunity shall occur. 

We know and feel that in this country the founda- 
tions of civil society have been already shaken to 
their very centre ; and that all the relations of life, 
social and domestic, have been already mildewed 
and withered by the blasts o{ jacobin-atheism which 
have long blown, and still continue to blow from off 
the accursed shores of the Sodom and the Gomorrah 
of our days ; even from the polluted coast of France, 
whose people have thrown off all allegiance to their 
God, and are now waging eternal war with every 
virtue that can adorn, and with every amiable qua- 
lity that can endear the human character to our 
hearts. 

All those who have cast their view broad and ex- 
panded over the eventful series of human actions 
and crimes which of late years has laid waste the 
fairest portions of the earth, and has caused that 
century which in its beginning wore an angel 
form, to assume towards its close the features of a 
demon, and then to vanish in a shower of blood; 
will unanimously attribute all the horrors that 
have lately darkened, and that still continue to 



612 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

darken the horizon of our existence, to the efficient 
agency o^ one foul and feculent source of all ini- 
quity, even jacobinism ; for, in respect to society, 
sin and jacobinism are convertible terms. 

Jacobinism first taught its votaries, primarily in 
France, and then in the other countries of the 
globe, to cherish and to disseminate all that au- 
dacious licentiousness of opinion which spurns at 
the influence of habit, discards the experience of 
former times, and annihilates all the tender and 
elevated feelings of the human heart; which abol- 
ishing the standard of moral obligation raised by 
the hand of God himself, and revealed in his own 
divine word, presumes on every question, political, 
moral, social, domestic, and individual, to decide 
merely according to the dictates of personal con- 
venience and selfish appetite; which justifies the 
means by the end, prefers atheism to Christianity, 
and subjects every being on whom it can lay its 
bloody grasp, to the desolation of rapine and mur- 
der ; and all for the genei^al good ; good so very 
general that it destroys all individual happiness. 

The fire of jacobinism had long been pent up in 
the bowels of continental Europe, until at length, 
after having in secret consumed the bands of reli- 
gion and of honor, it burst forth into that tremen- 
dous volcanic explosion, the French revolutiony 
which has convulsed all the civilized earth to its 
basis; has changed the aspect and relations of the 
moral and political world ; and has made all things. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. (5l3 

human and divine, to become confusion worse con- 
founded. 

With a lie in her right hand, and with the fel- 
lest malignity rankling in her heart, she has uni- 
formly declared, and even now has the impudence 
to declare, through all her thousand venal presses 
in this country, that France^ the land where the 
milk of human kindness continually overflows, 
never did, nor does now, entertain any desire of 
foreign conquest ; that all the schemes of domina- 
tion and aggrandizement, so generally supposed 
to have influenced the mighty views of RichlieUy 
of Louvois, and of Bonaparte, are all vile falsehoods 
and calumnies invented by the enemies of France 
and of universal peace. We are daily and hourly 
told, from the million springs and sources of de- 
mocracy in the United States, that France akvai/s 
did and does now abhor every intention of disturb- 
ing other countries; of subverting their establish- 
ed governments; of destroying their national inde- 
pendence; of annihilating their rights and privi- 
leges. All the contests of France are contests of 
self-defence. 

If we may believe the fair speeches of jacobin- 
ism that even yet crowd our American newspapers, 
pamphlets, and books, by the i^evolution France 
has secured unto herself for ever the most pro- 
found internal tranquillity; the purest and the 
most exalted domestic happiness; the highest and 
most unquestioned public faiths the most perfect. 



614 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

the mildest, the most equitable system of govern- 
ment ; the most universal, the tenderest spirit of 
philanthropy that can cheer and dignify the hu- 
man heart, too long saddened and degraded by the 
corrupt and tyrannical institutions of all the Eu- 
ropean societies (except that of France) hitherto 
established among men. And yet, (such is the 
illimitable nature of her benevolence) to other na- 
tions France iui parts the most uncontrolled kind- 
ness; a friendship liberal and enlarged beyond all 
mortal conception ; eternal peace ; the sublimest 
morality ; and the purest religion, the freedom 
from all prejudices. 

Such, the American democrats tell us, are the 
fruits of the French revolution, founded, as they 
still persist in declaring it to be founded upon the 
successful struggles of a virtuous people to ame- 
liod'ate the condition of suffering humanity, found- 
ed as it is upon principles that cannot fail to pro- 
duce the immediate, and to ensure the permanent 
happiness, not only of France, but oiall the other 
nations of the earth. 

And when we ask how it happens that these 
marvellous and exalted principles have not yet 
produced these beneficial results ; have not yet 
created nor established the social and domestic 
happiness of the human race ? and when we add 
that this same system of eternal peace has engen- 
dered a more extensive and a more bloody war- 
fare, and that this universal philanthropy has given 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 615 

birth to a series of more general and complicated 
calamity and horror, than have ever been produ- 
ced by all the combined efforts of the other cor- 
rupted institutions of society, savage, and civi- 
lized, ancient and modern ; we are told, with a 
smile of self-sufficient applause, that the despots of 
the earth alone are worthy of censure for not cour- 
teously and gratefully receiving the blessings 
which France and jacobinism proffer to them ; 
and if we still presume to pause and to doubt, we 
are insultingly bidden to cast our eyes upon the 
emancipated and happy state of Spain, of Portugal, 
of Holland, of Italy, of Switzerland, and of all 
that vast portion of the Germanic empire which 
enjoys the protection, and the more than mater- 
nal tenderness of Gallic domination. 

A very slight examination of the subject will 
enable any man of common understanding to 
perceive that jacobinism rests on a wild theory, 
fallacious and impracticable; founded on an en- 
tire ignorance of the nature and end of man, and 
utterly subversive of the very existence of all civi- 
lized communities. 

Accordingly, we have seen in France all the 
elements of human society cradled in blood -, and 
as the only means of restraint in the absence of 
all law, human and divine, a military despotism 
enforced in all its rigor ; a military despotism 
which sports with the lives, plunders the proper- 
ty, and manacles the thoughts, words, and deeds 



616 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

of the French people, in a far greater degree than 
the Sublime Porte and all his hordes of murder- 
ous Janissaries dare to inflict upon their slaves. 
And joined to the most unqualified, unrestrained 
tyranny at home, the Gallic despot carries into ef- 
fect the most boundless and destructive schemes 
of foreign domination ; thus rendering the people, 
upon whom he tramples as on the dust under his 
feet, at once the instruments of their own internal 
desolation, and the curses and the destroyers of all 
the surrounding nations. 

In this forced and frenzied state of society, 
France, although streaming with the blood of her 
own people, possesses vast power of plunging 
other countries into the gulf of her own misery, 
"Without having the least ability to lighten the 
burden of her own sufferings. 

It is well known that her foreign system, on 
which she has acted with little or no variation, 
excepting at occasional short intervals of feeble- 
ness and indecision in some few of her administra- 
tions, ever since the commencement of the reign 
of Louis the eleventh, and on which she now acts 
with more determination and industry than ever, 
forbids to every other country the hope of safety 
from her forbearance. Wherever she can make 
an impression by force or fraud, by allurements 
or by terror, by menaces or by blandishments, 
she will not be deterred by any obligation of 
treaties, nor be diverted by any law of God or 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 517 

man, from pursuing her plan of establishing one, 
universal, French sovereignty over all the earth. 

And let it never be forgotten that her foreign 
system of aggrandizement, by conquest, must al- 
ways bear along with it her domestic system of ra- 
pine, violence and bloodshed ; and that every na- 
tion which either bows beneath her sword, or re- 
ceives her protection as a friend., must see all its 
institutions entombed in one common grave. In 
that dark and disastrous hour, all the privileges 
and distinctions of the ditferent oiTlersof the com- 
munity ; all the most sacred and endearing rela- 
tions of social and domestic life ; the personal se- 
curity, the property, the rights, the conveniejices, 
the comforts, the enjoyments of every individual, 
the last beamings of religion, the twilight and the 
day of hope ; all that can render human existence 
dignified, desirable, and lovely, will be swept 
away into the charnel-house of death. 

But how is Bonaparte to destroy Britain, seeing 
that the English are so incalculably superior to the 
French, in wealth, industry, courage, intelligence, 
religion, morals, freedom, in a word, in every thing 
that can render a natiori permanently great and 
powerful ? 

" The decreesy theblockadingdecrees of the saga- 
cious emperor Napoleon," say the enlightened demo- 
crats of these United States, " will speedily destroy 
the cowardly, perfidious British, and reduce them to 

4 k 



618 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

slavery iinrler the French power, by ruinvig the 
commerce of England, " and so forth. 

I remember well, how fresh ebullitions of joy suc- 
cessively burst forth from all the hosts of democracy 
in the Union, at the successive information of Bo- 
naparte's having issued his Berliny Milariy and Bay- 
onne decrees ; after each of which it was most confi- 
dently pronounced that " Britain could not hold out 
more than six months at the very farthest." This 
assertion was renewed with greater vehemence than 
ever when ** the illusfrious Jefferson had with his 
accustomed wisdom and foresight put forth the res- 
trictive energies of America, which would starve that 
cowardly bully, England, into unconditional submis- 
sion, in less than three months^ Whoever will take 
the trouble of consulting the columns of Mr Jeffer- 
son's Safional Intelligencer, Mr. Madison's Mo-^ 
mlor, and Mr. Duane's Aurora, and many other 
democratic prints, may discover a great profusion of 
such political wisdom, and eloquence, as that which 
I havejust quoted. Indeed, in their daily and hour- 
ly ravings against Britain, the political effusions of 
these statesmen surpass even the average dulness of 
democrac3^ 

The Berlin decree was issued nearly three years 
since; and although the " six months*'' and the 
" three months,* which were to complete the period 
of Britain's national existence, have passed away 
many times over, yet the undaunted democratic pro- 
phets in this country, still continue to rave forth 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 619 

their assurances that " Britain is now acfuallv TjC' 
risking from the operation of the French decrees.'* 

The vers^ circumsrance of Bonaparte's issuing 
these decrees is a/«// cunfession on his part, that 
he despairs of ever injuring Britain ^y .fighting ; 
whence he is willing to aim at her ruin by bank- 
ruptcy ; which is a very slow process, and tedious 
withal, to a man of his impatient, military habits. 
An assassin who wished to murder a wealthy 
merchant who was in full credit, would hardly 
wait the tardy and uncertain event of his 
bankruptcy; if he could possibly finish the busi- 
ness more speedily by the dagger or the knife. 

The incessant clamoring also which Bonaparte 
makes at this time for a convention of all the conti- 
nental powers of Europe to meet at Vienna, in 
order to devise more effectual means of destroy- 
ing Britain, is a conclusive proof that he finds the 
Strength of the Great Nation alone inadequate to 
accomplish this desired object. The whole Euro- 
pean continent has been already directed against 
Britain, under the auspices and genius of theCor- 
sican, with no other effect than weakening the 
national resources, and preventing their repro- 
duction, all over the continent, and of augment- 
ing the wealth and power of the British empire. 

But happily, we are not left to rely merely on 
inference as to the conviction of Bonaparte that 
he has nothing to expect but disaster from fight- 
ing with Britain, and that his only forlorn hope 



G20 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

is to endeavor lo hanhrupt her ; for we have his 
own declaration to that etTect. 

Colonel Pinckney of the United States, son of 
Genei;d Cliarles Cotesvvorth Pinckney, in his 
*' Traveh through the SoiUh of France, in the years 
1807 — 1808," kc. published in London in lb09, 
gives an account of his being present at an audience 
given by Bonaparte in his palace at Paris ; from 
this part of Mr. Pnickney's book 1 extract the fol- 
low inj^j paragraphs. 

" Bonaparte novv advanced to the imperial am- 
bassador, with whom, when present, he always 
begins the audience. I had novv an opportunity 
to regard him attentively. His person is below 
the middle size, but well-composed ; his features 
regular, but in their toui ensemble stern and com- 
manding ; his complexion sallow, and his general 
mien military. He was dressed very splendidly 
in purple velvet ; the coat and waistcoat embroid- 
ered with gold bees, and the grand star of the 
Legion of Honor worked into the coat. 

" He passed no one without notice ; and to all 
the amba>sadors he spoke once or twice. When 
he reached General Armstrong, he asked him *'If 
Au)erica could not live without foreign commerce 
as well as France?" And then added, without 
waiting for an answer — *' There \i one nation in 
the world which must be taught by experience 
that her merchants are not necessarv to the exis- 
tence of all other nations; and that she cannot 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 621 

hold lis all in rommercial slavery. England is 
07il}i vulnerable in her (comptoirs) counting-hou- 
ses." 

The whole flemocratic party, in these United 
States, (^oniimially inrorm us, that, "Commerce 
imwriablif weakens, corrupts, and destroys every 
nation which has recourse to it, by making the 
people weak and dissipated, cowardly and vicious ; 
by diminishing population ; witness the ruin of 
Carthage, Tyre, Sidon, Venice, Holland, and 
Rome in her decline; «// of which nations per- 
ished on no other account but because they were 
commercial. Whence it follows as an irresistible 
corollajy, that the ivisest policy of the United 
States will be to abandon the ocean altogether ; and 
leave the corruptions of commerce to be at once 
the bait and the destruction of the slaves of Eu- 
rope." 

This " irresistible corollary y' Mr. Jefferson has 
been endeavoring to draw, for the benefit of the 
Union, now about two years ; by abandoning 
all its trade to the slaves of Europe. The num- 
berless beneficial results of commerce to every 
nation that happens to have sense and spirit 
enough to cultivate it, are far beyond my power 
even to hint at ,; but the objections urged against 
trade are vQvy easily shown to be false and 
foolish. 

If commerce add nothing to national wealth and 
strength, why does Bonaparte so incessantly and 
strenuously endeaver to ruin the commerce of Bri- 



622 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

tain as the only possible means of effecting her 
subjugation to France? Jf commerce add nothing 
to national wealth and strength, how is it that 
Spain^ who three hundred years since was the most 
formidable nation in the world, has dwindleti 
down into its present poor and feeble state, not- 
withstanding her boundless American colonies, 
and her inexhaustible mines of the precious nne- 
tals, while Britain, who was three centuries ago 
comparatively an insignificant nation, is now be- 
come the most powerful state on the globe, al- 
though her little island yields no gold or silver 
mines, and is of narrow extent. How has this 
happened, but because Britain has been an enter- 
prising commercial nation, and Spain has neglec- 
ted trade ? 

Rome never zvas a commercial nation ; in the 
earlier days of her republic she was foolish and 
ignorant enough to aftect to despise trade ; and in 
her decline the tyranny of her imperial govern- 
ment, (the object of Bonaparte's fond imitation) 
entirely stifled and destroyed all the commerce of 
Europe. 

Tyre, Sidon, Carthage, Venice, and Holland, 
owed the whole of their power to their commerce, 
which enabled them to exist as formidable nations 
much longer than they could possibly have done, 
by continuing mere beggarly, ignorant, feeble, 
agricultural people. Their commerce supported 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &e. 62S 

them against the whole world ; and they drooped 
only when their trade declined. 

As to commerce weakening a nation by render-* 
ing its people luxurious and dissipated ; this asser- 
tion is directly contrary to fact. Trade by en- 
riching a whole nation, diffuses plenty, comfort, and 
opulence throughout all its parts; but the dissi- 
pation aud luxury of non-commercial, of merely 
agricultural countries, are much greater and more 
destructive than can ever take place in trading 
nations. For instance in the agricultural nations 
of Europe, as Prussia, Poland, Germany, Spain, 
the people are mainly divided into two classes; 
namely, a few ignorant, idle nobles, who have no 
other employment than the pursuit of vice and 
folly; and a great mass of the people, who are 
slaves, poor, wretched, spiritless boors, serfs, and 
vassals. 

But in commercial countries, as in Britain at 
this moment, wealth flows in and enriches the 
great body of the people; actually builds up the 
third est ate y the middle orders ; and the opulent, 
merchants, though living plentifully, are yet in- 
dustrious themselves, and are perpetually putting 
in motion a vast quantity of productive industry 
in all the departments of agriculture, trade, and 
manufactures. There is no opportunity for the 
wealthy merchants in a commercial country to be 
so luxurious and dissipated as are the over-grown 
land-proprietors in merely agricultural nations; 



624 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

the middle orders of a trading people liv^e abun- 
dantly and prosper; and the lower classes work, 
earn the full means of subsistence, and re-produce 
their species in a continually progressive ratio. 

Next, as to commerce necessarily producing 
vice and cowardice; an extensive commerce breeds 
a great marine, the most effectual nursery of a 
hardy and intrepid body of men ; and by dividing 
labor, enables the state to maintain an army by 
voluntarj' enlistments, whose business it is to 
fight, instead of a paltry militia of peasantry, 
whose business it is to plough, and, when called 
into battle, to run avvay. Britain, the greatest 
commercial country in the world, far surpasses all 
the European continenial nations in the skill and 
valor of her army and navy. 

And lastly, as to commerce depopulating a na- 
tion ; trade, by increasing the demand for agricul- 
tural produce, augments the means of subsistence; 
and wherever these are, the population increases 
proportionably. On a given number of square 
miles, other things being equal, a much greater 
number of people is always found in commercial 
than in anti-commercial countries. 

Add to all this, the vast quantity of human en- 
terprise, courage, intellect, and knowledge, which 
commerce puts in motion. The least commercial 
are the most ignorant nations, as China and Rus- 
sia; and the most commercial are the most en- 
lightened countries, witness Britain and the Uni- 



\ 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 625 

ted States, of which last-mentioned nation the 
back lands have been cleared and settled for more 
than five hundred miles distant from the great sea- 
port towns and cities, solely by the vast influx of 
vveahh that commerce poured into the Union be- 
fore Mr. Jefferson drew his *' irresistible corollary'^ 
in the shape of the embargo, during the v/inter of 
I8O7. Since that time, indeed, America has been 
most fearfully retrograde in all the circumstances 
which contribute to national peace, prosperity, 
strength, and honor. 

Commerce introduces and cherishes freedom; 
trade and despotism are incompatible, as is now 
seen most strikingly in France and Russia ; for all 
commercial bodies are in fact republican institu- 
tions, generally consisting of representative aristo- 
cracies, as the chambers of commerce in these 
United States, and the great incorporated trading 
companies in Britain. The subject of commerce 
however is inexhaustible, and my time and oppor- 
tunity very limited ; I shall therefore only state, 
that the history of the whole world uniformly proves, 
that trade invariably and directly promotes the in- 
dustry, wealth, virtue, civilization, freedom, know- 
ledge, power, and happiness of the people that ex- 
tensively cultivate it ; and indirectly augments the 
convenience, comfort, riches, and prosperity of the 
whole world. 

France herself for many ages wa^ the most com- 
4 L 



625 • HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

mercial nation in continental Europe, excepting 
Holland, and undoubtedly she has always been the 
most warlike of all modern countries. Commerce 
first roused the spirit of resistance on the part of the 
people to the feudal despotism ; and reared the in- 
dependence of the Hanse Towns. The agricultural 
Germans in their woods, and the Scanrlinavians 
amidst their snows, were some of the most debauch- 
ed and profligate people in Europe. 

But what effect are Bonaparte*s decrees to pro- 
duce upon Britain r 

1. Can the Continent of Europe do as well with 
the whole of its foreign trade cut off as B. itam can 
do with a very small part of her foreign trade cut 
Oflf? It is evident that the Corsican's decrees can 
only, in the utmost extent of their power, deprive 
Britain of that portion of her trade which she used 
to transact with the European Continent. But this 
branch of trade is very small and insignificant in 
comparison of the whole extent of British commerce. 
In the debate which took place in the Hou^e of 
Commons on the commercial treaty between France 
and Britain, concluded by Mr. Elen, now Lord 
Auckland, in the year 17?i6, Mr. Flood stated that 
the annual average value of ejr/;o;7^ from Britain to all 
the world, including her own colonies, had, for some 
years past, amounted to nearly one hundred millions 
sterlings and that in the year 1785, the merchan- 
dise exported from the British Isles into France, 
Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain, Venice, Portugal, 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 6^7 

and Turkey amounted only to four millions and a 
small fraction ; being rather less than one part in 
twenty of the >um total of exports from Britain. 

This statement referred to a time of profound 
peace; but in war the proportion of Britain's Eu- 
ropean Continental trade is still less in comparison 
with her whole commerce. If therefore Bonaparte 
can shut Britain out completely from the whole Con- 
tinent of Europe he can only prevent her from ex- 
porting a comparatively small portion of her mer- 
chandise ; for which benefit he irreparably injures 
all the Continental nations, not excepting France 
herself, by destroying the lohole o{ ihe'n export trade; 
and thus most materially cripples their agriculture 
and their manufactures, 

2. But can Bonaparte by his decrees diminish the 
whole trade of Britain ? That he has not been able 
to do it yet, is most certain; for British commerce 
is now more extensive than erer. The people on 
the Continent of Europe are not one whit the more 
inclined to go naked, because Bonaparte has taken 
a fancy to see them all sans-culottes. The general 
warfare has so cut up the manufactures of Continen- 
tal Europe, that recourse must be had to Britain for 
some articles of prime necessity, and many of great 
convenience, or a total privation of them must be 
endured. 

The Continental nations prefer applying to Bri- 
tain for goods to obeying the Corsican's imperial 
decrees ; and accordingly large quantities of British 



628 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

manufactures find their way continually into the 
Continent of Europe, notwithstanding all Bona- 
parte's endeavors to prevent it. 

A conclusive proof that Britain has not suffer- 
ed any diminution in her great staple-manufac- 
ture, from the operations of the terrible Beilin, 
Milan, and Bayonne decrees, may be gathered 
from the following account of the present condi- 
tion of the woollen manufacture in the north of 
England, taken from the official returns, including 
a period from the 25th of March 1808 to the 25th 
of March 1809. 

Narrow Cloths. 

Pieces. Yards. 
Milled in 1808—9, 144,624, making 5,309,007 
1807—8, 161,816, 5,931,253 



Decreased, . . 17,193, 622,246 



Broad Cloths. 

Pieces. Yards. 
Milled in 1808—9, 279,859, making 9,050,970 
1807—8, 262,024, 8,422,143 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 629 

Increase, . . 17,835, making 628,827 
Deduct, . . 17,193, 622,246 



and the total increase in yards is, . 6,58 1|; 

which multiplied by 2, give an increase 

of yards 13,162 



The increase of 628,827 yards in broad cloths is 
at least in a double proportion to the decrease in 
narrows which is onlv half the width of the broad 
cloths. It should also be noticed, that in March 
1808, the stock of cloth on hand was very great, 
whereas now there is scarcely any. So that not- 
withstanding Bonaparte's decrees, more British 
woollens have been manufactured, and very many 
more have been sold, during the last, than in any 
preceding year. 

Whence the only effect produced by these im- 
perial decrees is, that Bonaparte's own subjects, 
and allies have the satisfaction of smuggling Bri- 
tish goods into the European continent at an ad- 
vanced price of fifty or a hundred per cent, and 
of depriving their respective governments of the 
duties on these goods which would accrue from 
their lawful importation. 

3. Although the aggregate trade of the whole 
world has been lessened by the decrees of Bona- 
parte, and, the cowardly imitations of his vassal 
states in the different quarters of the globe, yet 
Britain's; share or proportion of commerce has been 



630 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

considerably augmented. France, Holland, Ger- 
many, Russia, Italy, Denmark, now cease to ex- 
port any of their various commodities, and Britain 
in part supplies those foreign markets, which used 
to be open to the goods of continental Europe. 

In addition to which, the trade of Spain, of her 
immense colonies, and of the Brazils, has been 
also recently unlocked to Britain, whose com- 
merce is now far more extensive than it ever has 
been at any former period ; so much so that the 
price of her tonnage is about double to what it 
used to be before Bonaparte's decrees and Mr. 
Jefferson's all-wise embargo were laid on, in order 
" to put the finishing stroke to the navigation, 
manufactures, and trade of Britain," as we were 
triumphantly told in print by the bosom-friend 
and most honored state-companion of Mr. Jeffer- 
son himself. 

In good truth, the impoverished state of conti- 
nental Europe, and the almost total dissipation of 
its floating and mercantile capital, in consequence 
of the long continued ravages of war, has not only 
crippled for the present, but must inevitably re- 
tard for a long time to come, the growth of its 
manufacturing industry ; whence it is now and 
will continue to be for many years more than ever 
dependant upon Britain for the primary necessa- 
ries and the chief conveniences of life. 

Mr. Comber, in p. 294 — 313, of his book so often 
referred to before, makes some very sensible obser- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, v^C. 631 

vations on this subject. " A commercial inter- 
course cannot well exist, under any circumstanceSj 
between two nations without benefiting both ; be- 
cause nothing would be long sent from one to the 
other, for which there is not an effectual demand, 
and consequently an equivalent in some shape or 
other returned ; and if the equivalent be not of less 
value to the giver (on both sides) than the commodi- 
ty which he receives, it would be a losing trade to 
one or both parties concerned, and of course would 
speedily cease. 

As the demand thus maintained by an exchange 
of equivalents mutually encourages the production of 
the articles exchanged, the annual produce of both 
countries is augmented. Hence no nation ca7i res- 
train this intercourse, or throw obstacles in its way, 
without suffering at least as much injury as it inflicts. 

But in the present anti-commercial conflict be^ 
tween Britain and France it cannot be doubted 
which is the greatest sufferer ; for the frantic at- 
tempts made against British commerce not only fail 
in diminishing their export trade, but also leave en- 
tirely unimpaired their vast abundance of solid, per- 
manent wealth, their inexhaustible sources of riches 
resulting from habits of industry and the annual 
accumulation of national capital ; while at the 
same time the various countries of continental Eu- 
rope that are under the influence of Bonaparte are 
entirely deprived of many of the comforts and some 
of the necessaries of life, by the annihilation of all 



630, HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

their foreign trade ; and in the measures of retalia- 
tion to which they have driven Britain they find in- 
superable obstacles thrown in the way of their inter- 
course with each other, by the interruption of their 
coasting navigation, and the consequent grievous di- 
minution of their internal or home trade. 

If the issue of the contest should depend on the 
comparative degree of suffering resulting to the dif- 
ferent contending powers, a speedy determination 
might be confidently anticipated; but it dependschief- 
\y on the will of a remorseless individual, who consi- 
ders the misery or destruction of the whole human 
race as nothing when put in competition with the 
projects of his personal ambition, or the gratification 
of his own selfish pride and vanity. A termination 
depending upon sucli causes is extremely doubtful ; 
because it is not easy to calculate the precise quan- 
tity of national misery that can induce a people to 
counteract or oppose the will of a military despot. 
And although the improvement of a nation, and the 
development of its resources, may be rapidly pro- 
gressive ; yet its retrograde movements are gene- 
rally too slow and imperceptibly wasting, to pro- 
duce sudden and decisive effects by the entire alter- 
ation of great political measures. Whence a coun- 
try badly governed is usually suffered to sink silent- 
ly and gradually into destruction by the ruin of all 
its internal resources ; as is most conspicuously ex- 
emplified in the obstinate adherence to the anti-corn- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 633 

viej'cial system by the present administrations of 
France and these United States. 

There is therefore no probabihty of a speedy crisis 
in the affairs of continental Europe, which might 
t^nd to counteract the measures that Bonaparte has 
adopted for the sole purpose of destroying Britain, 
And any attempt on the part of England to avert 
the 5'?//Y;o.fd'rf consequences of these terrible decrees, 
would only increase the arrogance of the Corsican, 
and induce him to believe in the efficacy of his anti- 
commercial scheme, and that the British empire 
could at any time be subdued by paper proclama- 
tions, edicts, embargoes, non-importations, and non- 
intercourses. 

It is therefore the true interest and sacred duty of 
Britain to persevere in the contest, until Bonaparte 
feels by the ruin of his own empire the inefficacy of 
all his blockading endeavors to destroy, or even to in- 
jure the British commerce. When this is once de- 
monstrated in the face of the whole world, the con- 
viction of the utter folly and feebleness of such a 
system of arrogance, as it regards Britain, accom- 
panied by the salutary experience of the grievous 
and irreparable evils which it entails upon the coun- 
tries that adopt it, will prevent otiier governments 
in future from imagining that " the putting forth 
their restrictive energies is one of the ordinary but 
effectual modes of coercing the British into zincondi' 
tional submission." 

4 M 



6S4 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

That this, or any other contest in which the 
strength of opposing powers is tried, might occasion 
inconvenience or distress to a few trading individuals, 
is a matter comparatively of no moment, and should 
not on any account deter Britain from maintaining 
her maritime rights and interests, and asserting her 
national honor. For although many are ba ,e enough 
to consider national honor as nothing when put in 
competition with mercantile gain and profi*^, yet it 
is with natiojis as with individuals^ those who have 
not sufficient virtue, wisdom, and courage to defend 
their character and honor from all attacks, are in- 
variably devoted to perpetual insult and degrada- 
tion, to ultimate and lasting bundat^n. 

The following Spanish gazette, dated August 8th, 
1808, gives the most accurate and conclusive view 
of the effects necessarily resulting from Bonaparte's 
anti-commercial edicts. 

" Is the blockade of the European Continent 
against the English practicable f If the Old and the 
New Continent were under the domination and 
sovereignty of one sole monarch, and it v> ere possi- 
ble that on all the shores, and in the whole circum- 
ference of the earth, his orders were obeyed and exe- 
cuted, unopposed by cogent necessity and circum- 
stances, then the blockade of Continental Europe 
might be practicable and effective. 

But to ordain or expect that for one kingdom or 
empire, which has not even the command of the 
western part of Continental Europe, all the other 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 635 

potentates, without any attention to their situation^ 
relations, and wants, should willingly deprive them- 
selves of the benefits of commerce, and forego the 
neressaries of h(e and comfort ; raise and consign 
to destruction the surplus produce of their countries, 
and give up the resources which industry and navi- 
gation procure ; is a pretension extravagant and im- 
practicable in foreign dominions, and unjust and ty- 
rannical at home. 

It is well known that ports are the sources of the 
wealth of States, and the channels through which 
specie, and all other articles of necessity, conveni^ 
ence, and enjoyment pass. If this entry of public 
prosperity be shut to mankind, they will be restric- 
ted to the bare produce of their soil, and be through 
the want of specie reduced to indigence. Without 
this specie (or its equivalent) they cannot be brought 
to raise and keep up their armies, project and at- 
chieve conquests. It has therefore been wisely said, 
that that power would cominand the European Con- 
tinent which could hold the dominion of the seas, 
and whose navigation and commerce would at the 
same time flt)urish. 

Yet in despite of these glaring truths, France has 
for these fifteen years past never ceased projecting 
ridiculous, chimerical, impracticable enterprises. 
She has the levity to declare the continent blockaded 
to the English, before she has secured the possession 
of the coast of Europe. This novelty captivated all 
the credulous, insensate admirers of fantastic extr^- 



i)36 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

vagance; while it met with co7idig?i derision from. 
the statesman, and the reflecting mind. In fact, 
the report of Talleyrand, the approbation of the se- 
nate, and the imperious decree of Bonaparte, are il- 
lustrious subjects of farce, and precious stuff for the 
pen of play-wrights. 

And indeed what can be imagined more prepos- 
terous and ludicrous than to decree, whilst engaged 
in a hazardous contest with Russia, Sweden, and 
Prussia, unpossessed of the full control of Denmark, 
Spain, Austria, Portugal, and Turkey, and even be- 
fore the reduction of Calabria, and the expulsion of 
the Pope and the Queen-regent of Etruria from the 
Adriatic and the Mediterranean ; that the whole 
continent of Europe should shut up its ports to the 
English i sacrifice its commerce and interests; bare- 
ly because Napoleon is pleased to ordain it so ? He 
has however ordained it, and the exalted imagina- 
tion of the sanguine and visionary French already 
saw the EnglisJi navy annihilated, and Britain 
crushed. 

What sad pictures did not France and her par- 
tisans all over the world draw of the situation of 
the British ? Inaction, famine, discontents, and 
revolutions, were successively agitating Britain ; 
there were many in France, (and in these United 
States also,) who in positive anticipation, already 
beheld king George humiliated, and prostrate on 
his knees, soliciting peace from the hero of the 
age, and the arbiter of the destinies of man. So 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 637 

vast is the influence of error in the realms of 
ignorance. 

Bat the ill-fated, proscribed English, so far 
from retrograding, have made still greater strides 
to wealth and power ; while in France and Spain, 
specie vanished, and even the opulent began to 
feel themselves constrained to assimilate their 
regimen to that of the muleteer and the sheep- 
driver. 

The colonies, both Spanish and French, were by 
this decree, openly put to the verge of revolution ; 
and driven to the necessity of consulting for their 
independence. The allies of France, who derive 
their whole support from commerce, to prevent 
their ruin, were forced to renounce the protection 
and alliance of Napoleon ; their armies were on 
the eve of falling to pieces, and dispersing for 
Vfaui of means to keep them together ; destitute 
of commodities, and unable even to convey them, 
their maritime forces being reduced or over-awed, 
the inhabitants of Spanish America were on the 
point of being driven to the necessity of opening 
their ports to the English. 

This project, then, has been monstrously absurd. 
Bonaparte was, no doubt, aware that his decrees 
could not be the means of wresting the trident 
from the hand of England, or releasing the ports 
from her blockade ; or of taking reciprocal ven- 
geance ; it was too clear to him that Britain had 
the forces to block him up, and that he had none 



6S§ HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

io prevent it. But he had nobler objects in view ; 
the continent of Europe was to be partitioned 
between his family ; and this expedient was by 
him conceived to be the most effectual way to 
conceal his schemes from the French, who were 
to be dragged like beasts to the shambles for 
slaughter. 

And thus he masked under the veil of national 
interest the ill-disguised scheme of aggrandi- 
zing his own family. These decrees have been 
no obscure omen of the premeditated articles of 
the peace of Tilsit, and of the division of 
Europe into two empires ; of which he, the 
projector, was for the present to seize that which 
would extend in one line from the mouth of the 
Vistula to Corfu, confined in other directions by 
the Baltic, the Ocean, the Mediterranean, and the 
Adriatic. Prussia was to hold the remainder. 

Necessarily must have entered into the accom- 
plishment of this project, the subjugation of Spain, 
Portugal, Etruria, the States of the Church, the 
Hanseatic Towns, Denmark, and finally Austria, 
which yet remained to be pared down. These 
tvere all comprehended in the Decree of the conii- 
nental blockade, which was the plausible means of 
coloring the entrance of his armies into Spain, 
preceded by proclamations, declaring that they 
come solely for the purpose of compelling the 
common enemy, (Britain) to keep within his owa 
bounds, and of inducing him to sl maritime peace. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 639 

The French entered upon the stage, and be- 
gan to act. They no sooner had obtained the 
desired footing, than the mask was thrown off, 
and rapine and desolation of chiefs and cohorts 
became the order of the day. The English, with- 
out comparison, more sagacious and wise than the 
French, have seen and predicted in the execu- 
tion of the decree of the blockade of continental 
Europe, the overthrow of the monstrous empire 
of France, and the emancipation of the European 
States. Britain has saved her allies, and consigned 
other nations to the lessons of experience ; and 
in fact, they have been all undeceived, are all 
desirous of throwing off their shackles j and some 
have disclosed their sentiments, and thrown open 
their ports to the English, who with a generosity 
equal to their power, have dispensed to them un- 
reserved aid. 

The communication having been opened, they 
find that Britain stands more flourishing, more 
undaunted, and more exalted than ever, before 
them. Let us blush at our credulous confidence 
in i^r^wcA representations ; let us consign to the 
flames their false, seductive papers j and for ever 
disclaim their friendship. Struck with shame, we 
acknowledge our error; renounce all adherence 
to France^ and vow everlasting friendship to 
Britain.'' 

Indeed, it argues no very profound policy in 
Bonaparte to endeavor to counteract the habits of 



640 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

more than a hundred millions of human beings by 
the will of himself, a single individual. Man is the 
creature of habit, whose guidance he follows in a 
thousand instances, for one in which he obeys the 
dictates of reason. Bonaparte orders more than 
a hundred millions of people on the continent of 
Europe, to forego all the benefits of foreign com- 
merce, and in consequence, to endure the daily 
and hourly privations of many of the prime neces- 
saries of life, and of many conveniencies and 
comforts which long habit has converted into 
necessaries. A very respectable German mer- 
chant informed me yesterday, that all his letters 
from his correspondents in Germany and Hol- 
land, concur in stating that a very great propor- 
tion of those families in continental Europe who 
used before the stoppage of all external trade to 
live in affluence and luxury, are now reduced to 
the same rude and homely fare with that of the 
peasantry inordinary times; and that the vast 
body of the people are ground down to an inex- 
pressible state of penury and wretchedness. 

Now there is nothing in all this that is calcula- 
ted to rouse the national pride, or to fan the mar- 
tial fire of the inhabitants of continental Europe ; 
but the constant pressure of privation and incon- 
venience pervading all their individual and social 
habits, penetrating into and destroying the inmost 
recesses of their domestic conjfort, liauiiting their 
tables and their beds, and casting a face of uni- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. ^41 

versal cheerlessness and gloom over all the pur- 
suits of themselves and of their families ; can only 
sharpen and deepen the most deadly and unrelen- 
ting hatred against the sole author of all their mis- 
er}' ; against the individual who wantonly sacrifi- 
ces all their comfort and happiness in the prosecu- 
tion of his selfish, hopeless, impracticable project 
of destroying Britain. 

When Peter the first of Russia issued an impe- 
rial decree ordering all his subjects to shave ihem- 
selves, the commotion was so violent, and the resis- 
tance of the Russians to this infringement upon 
their long continued habits so determined, that 
the despotic Tzar, who exercised the uncontrolled 
power of life and death over his people, was 
obliged to recall his decree ; because he found it 
easier and less dangerous to the safety of his throne 
to take off' the head than the beard of a Mus- 
covite. 

Nor could that infatuated philosophist, Joseph 
the second, emperor of Germany, induce his sub- 
jects in Austria, where his power was absolute, 
to bury their dead bodies in lime-pits; because 
it was contrary to the mode of interment to which 
thev had been accustomed. 

And in the revolutionary war, notwithstanding 
the famous non- importation act of 1774, the Ame- 
rican army was always clothed in British cloth, 
which, during the first years of the war was im- 
ported into the United States from Amsterdam, 

4 N 



642 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

and afterwards from Gottenburgh, when the 
Dutch were dragged reluctantly into the war 
against England by the ascendency of French in- 
fluence in their national councils. The same cir- 
cumstance took place as to a va?.t variety of other 
commodities, which the habits of the American 
people induced them to purchase indirectly from 
Britain, in spite of the combined forces of the 
non-importation act and the war, which indeed 
raised the prices of imported articles to the Ame- 
rican consumer to an average of from seventy to a 
hundi^ed per cent. 

I am therefore inclined to think that the inve- 
terate habits of the people of continental Europe 
will so far elude the utmost vigilance of Bona- 
parte and his army of custom-house officers, as to 
enable them to import British manufactures in 
considerable quantities, until the day of re-action 
shall burst asunder the fetters of ant i- commercial 
bondage by shaking the enormous empire of 
France to the very centre of its foundations. 

If then Bonaparte's anti-commercial decrees 
cannot destroy Britain, by zvhat means is he to 
accomplish her ruin .^ By ^fighting ? Of the 
hopelessness of that experiment he has received 
ample testimony written in very legible and per- 
manent characters, at Cornnna and Talavera, 
within these twelve months since ; w here he has 
had the mortification of finding that his boasted 
French veterans cannot stand in battle against a 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &e. 64S 

far inferior number of British troops. It is in- 
deed the peculiar characteristic of the people of 
Britain, that their spirit and courage rise in pro- 
portion as dangers and difficulties thicken around 
them, and they have nothing to fear from the 
combined violence of the whole world directed 
against them, if they only remain true to them- 
selves, and resolutely persevere in upholding their 
national rights and honor against all the assaults 
of fraud and force. 

Besides, the insular situation of Britain renders 
it peculiarly difficult for a foreign enemy to ac- 
complish her subjugation. It is not quite so easy 
for Bonaparte to pour his myriads of armed slaves 
into the British isles, as into Spain or Germany. 
Admiral Lord Bridport used to say, "that the 
French might invade England as soon as they 
pleased, but that they should not come by 
water." 

The French have for some years past been 
perpetually endeavoring to invade the little island 
of Sicily, and have always been frustrated in their 
attempts by the British fleet which commands the 
bay, although they are masters of all the opposite 
coast, can command any number of troops for the 
expedition, and have a very short run by water to 
encounter. 

Britain is all-powerful at sea, and can annoy 
France, can insult her coasts, can prevent the re- 
suscitation of her commerce, and thus cripple her 



644 HINTS ON tHE NATIONAL 

finances and resources. In return for all which 
France threatens England with invasion, but how 
is a fleet of flat bottomed boats to elude the vigi- 
lance of the British fleet, and land an army large 
enough to produce any serious effect on Britain? 

But suppose they were landed ; an English 
army, well appointed, and of most undaunted 
valor, would soon destroy any hostile force that 
could be disembarked. No doubt, much evil, 
short of absolute subjugation, might be inflicted 
on a country by an invading army, more particu- 
larly in Britain, which is very ill calculated to 
become the scene of military operations, owing 
to its vast wealth, its crowded population, its mul- 
titudes of traders and mechanics, its public debt 
and paper currency, its commercial credit, and 
the various factitious qualities of a nice and most 
complicated system of society. 

But the question now before us is, will Bona- 
parte ultimately conquer and enslave Britain ? 
Now, no one who has had an opportunity of ex- 
amining the resources, physical and moral, of the 
French and British empires, can for a single mo- 
ment hesitate to assert that Bonaparte, even if he 
could succeed in combining all continental Europe 
against England, and shut her out from all the 
foreign markets in the world ; that even then it 
would be more easy for him to turn aside the wa- 
ters of the ocean than to subdue the high spirit of 
the mistress of the deep. 



BANKRUPTCY. OF BRITAIN, &C. 645 

And if he even succeed in making good his 
landing on that queen of isles, " that precious 
stone set in the silver sea," he will find that the 
tide of hostile invasion will be rolled back upon 
him, and upon his slaves, by the living rampart of 
British bodies j every day will be a day of battle ; 
every inch of ground will be floated in the blood 
of his bravest followers ; and the subjugation of 
Albion will only be purchased by the slaughter of 
all her children. 

The following examination into the effects re- 
sulting from war or peace to France and Britain, 
in the present critical situation of Europe, I owe 
to the pen of the same illustrious statesman, from 
whom I borrowed the account of the existing 
condition of Holland. 

" A peace with France now, would expose the 
British East-India possessions to a very serious 
increase of danger. At present, the French have 
not a single settlement on the continent of India, 
and are consequently excluded from communica- 
tion with the native powers. But peace, by re- 
storing to them Pondicherry and their lesser set- 
tlements, will re-open to them the avenue to in- 
trigue at the courts of the Indian princes. 

Bonaparte, unless very closely watched and 
spiritedly resisted, will introduce his officers in 
order to discipline their troops, and prepare them, 
by the most assiduous exertions, to dispute with 
Britain on her next rupture with France, the pos- 



646 HINTS ON THE xNfATIONAL 

session of that vast country. India has long been 
the favorite object of Bonaparte's ambition ; the 
spirit which led him to attempt its conquest 
through Egypt and Arabia, still animates him. 
He regards it, not with the deliberate considera- 
tion of a statesman, but with the enthusiasm of a 
soldier ; with the ardor of vulgar prejudice, as an 
inexhaustible mine of wealth ; the source of the 
riches and power of Britain. He well knows, 
that during the continuance of war, his efforts to 
shake the British power in that envied country 
will be hopeless, but in peace he will prepare, in 
fraud and secrecy, the means of its radical sub- 
version. 

An interval of peace, if of short duration, would 
also open to the body-jacobin in Ireland an inter- 
course with their patron and master in France, 
whose emissaries would soon flock over in the pre- 
tended capacity of commercial commissaries. 

The commerce, the finances, tlie colonial policy 
of Britain have always hitherto flourished, and do 
now continue to flourish, during the war which 
has annihilated the trade, the colonies, and the 
credit of France. But in peace Britain would be 
obliged to maintain nearly the same large and ex- 
pensive establishments which she supports during 
the war, without the same extent of commerce; 
while France would recruit her navy, recover her 
commerce and colonies, and be speedily ready to 
renew the encountre with every advantage on her 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 6kf 

side, and every disadvantage on the side of her 
antagonist. 

While Bonaparte lives it is vain to expect any 
lasting peace for Europe. In his celebrated con- 
versation with Lord Whitvvorth, during the peace 
of Amiens, th\s poci/ic chief declared that then, ia 
a time of profound tranquillity, he was going im- 
mediately to complete his army to four himdred 
and eighty thousand men, and was confident of 
equalling in ten years that fleet which makes Eng- 
land mistress of the seas. 

Of Bonaparte's disposition there can be no 
doubt. The settled purpose of his soul is to aim 
at universal empire. He pursues this object with 
undeviating constancy in peace and in war. He 
advances to it alternately by force of arras, and by 
secret intrigues. He maintains in peace an army 
of half a million of men that he may pursue a uni- 
form course of encroachment, and reply to the re- 
monstrances of his neighbors by threats of imme- 
diate war. 

At the peace of Amiens the most liberal, /^r too 
liberal^ concessions were made to him by Britain, 
in order to afford him every inducement for the 
maintenance of peace. Britain asked to retain 
nothing which might injure the interests or wound 
the pride of France. With a wise and moderate 
enemy this policy would have laid the foundation 
of permanent tranquillity ; with a headstrong t}'^- 
rant it was only the signal for new aggressions. 



648 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

The interval of peace was to him a time of great- 
er activity, o{ more extensive aggrandizement than 
the most vigorous war. He parcels out Germany, 
he incorporates Piedmont with France, he enslaves 
Switzerland, he sows the seeds of war in India, he 
plans another perfidious surrender of Malta, and 
a second invasion of Egypt. He threatens to ex- 
clude England from intervention in the affairs of 
the European continent, and he orders the con- 
struction of twenty sail of the line in one year. 
His own harbors he shuts to the trade of Britain, 
and he commissions spies to survey her ports. 
And in the midst of these aggressions he repre- 
sents himself to Europe, with unparalleled assur- 
ance, as injured, because the British ministry, 
awakened at last to his violence, refused to deliv- 
er up the key of Egypt and of India. 

The first wish of Bonaparte's heart was, that 
Britain should have joined with France in con- 
quering and oppressing Europe. " Two such 
countries," to use his own words, " by a proper 
understanding, might govern the world. Had he 
not felt the enmity of Britain on every occasion 
since the treaty of Amiens," (that is, had the Bri- 
tish yielded an unqualified obedience to whatever 
he thought proper to demand) " there would have 
been nothing that he would not have done to prove 
his desire to conciliate; participation in indemni- 
ties as well as in influence on the European conti- 
nent ; treaties of commerce ; in short, any thing 



liANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 649 

that could have given satisfaction and have testi- 
fied his friendship." 

He once expected that Britain, insatiable of con* 
quest, like himself, might have been tempted to join 
in a base league against the sacred rights of na- 
tions ; when, after exhausting her strength in the 
subjugation of Europe, he would have bent his ut- 
most efforts to subdue the British Isles. Awakened 
however from this delusion, his present scheme is to 
overthrow Britain ; and in her the rest of the worlds 

He will endeavor to attain this object by a gra- 
dual progress, similar to that which led to the com- 
pletion of his usurpation in France. Violence and 
fraud combined effected his appointment to the con- 
sulate, at first for a limited period. In the third 
year of his sway, emboldened by a successful career, 
he procures his nomination for life. In the fifth he 
openly lays aside the mask, and assumes the absolute 
sovereignty of a country which had so lately braved 
utter extinction in the cause of liberty. 

Advanced in France to the plenitude of power, 
and secure of its duration, his ambition now takes a 
different range. He will pursue the degradation of 
Britain with the same combination of artifice and 
violence; the same unwearied perseverance which 
led to his own exaltation, ivar is an insurmountable 
obstacle to his progress, and he therefore desires an 
interval of peace. 

The ungovernable passion of ambition hurries 
him on, nut only beyond every restraint of religion 

4 o 



650 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

and morality, but even against the dictates of sound 
policy. Was there ever an act of wilder injustice 
than to establish a king in Holland, where royalty 
is proscribed by the concurrent voice of every 
party ? Was there ever a jnore impolitic step taken 
than his atrocious usurpation of Spain, by which he 
has converted an obedient and useful ally into a 
fierce and ungovernable enemy ? 

The same mind which planned these daring inno- 
vations, will hope to effect the expulsion of Britain 
from India, to wrest from her the sovereignty of the 
seas, to dismember Ireland from the British em- 
pire, and even to feed upon the hope of dictating a 
humiliating treaty in London. 

The man who is thus animated with the most im- 
placable rancorous hatred against Britam, is endow- 
ed with talents to which the history of nations scarce- 
ly exhibits a parallel in the lapse of centuries. His 
invention supplies expedients for every difficulty ; 
his subtlety has deceived successively every enemy; 
his mind, incessantly active, renounces all relaxa- 
tion, and occupies itself with perpetual schemes of 
ambition. He has maintained himself for years in 
possession of that absolute power which few of his 
predecessors enjoyed for so many months. He has 
not only baffled every assault from abroad, and 
conspiracy at home ; but has made them all sub- 
servient to his aggrandizement. The greater part 
of continental Europe is subject to his control, and 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &c. 65 1 

every force, except the armies and the fleets of Bri- 
tain, has fled before him. 

Peace is desired by Bonaparte, only as it will fur- 
nish more vigorous means of war. Is he anxious to 
re-establish the trade and manufactures of France, 
in order to promote the general happiness of his sub- 
jects ? Can such a disposition be ascribed to him 
who poisons his own sick and wounded troops, and 
assassinates his prisoners ? No. He desires peace 
that he might recruit his finances and his navy. A 
soldier in the cabinet, as in the field, he appreciates 
every thing by its utility in war ; and much as he 
sometimes affects to value commerce, we should see 
him in the midst of peace, if he could prevail on Bri- 
tain again to make such a disastrous peace for her- 
self, and so advantageous to France, as was that 
coivardlyy infamous peace of AmiejiSy continue to 
keep at least half a million of his subjects armed^ 
and abstracted from the pursuits of industry. 

Let us now examine the relative situations of the 
two countries in war and peace. In the present 
war, the balance of advantages in every respect is in 
favor of Britain. To France war with the British 
has become an inglorious and a hopeless contest. 
Her fleets have either been destroyed and captured ; 
or are accounted fortunate, if, returning from a fruit- 
less enterprise, they reach their own harbors in safe- 
ty. And of late, in Spain and Portugal, her boasted, 
invincible veteran troops, led on by Bonaparte's 



6.52 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

greatest commanders, have been uniformly beaten by 
very inferior numbers of British soldiery. 

There remains only the hazardous, difficult, des- 
perate attempt at invading Britain ; whi h if effect- 
ed would doubtless end in the entire destructi n of 
the assailants, and complete the victorious, prepon- 
derating attituile of the British empire. 

To Britain, war against France has been a se- 
ries of the most brilliant successes. It is in their 
allies only that the British have experienced mis- 
fortunes ; with the termination of almost every suc- 
cessive campaign, the aspect of the war has en- 
tirely changed. France, so terrible by land, is 
inactive and languid in her operations at sea. 
England is every where triumphant on the ocean, 
and reaps all the glory and benefit of active war- 
fare. 

The advantages of a peace to France are incal- 
culable. It will relieve her from a disastrous 
contest ; it will restore her colonies ; revive her 
expiring commerce ; recruit her exhausted finan- 
ces ; create innumerable seamen, arid re-establish 
her navy in its former splendor. But which of 
these benefits will Britain reap from a termina- 
tion of the war ? Her trade, her finances, her 
navy are flourishing beyond all former example. 
Will her security be increased by peace, or her 
burdens considerably lessened } 

In the former and better times of Europe, the 
advantages of peace were solid and immediate. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 653 

Fleets and armies were disbanded on both sides, 
and the burdens of war ceased with the signature 
of the definitive treaty. At present there can be 
710 important reduction of Britain's war- establish- 
ment. She must continue armed, and bear the 
burden of war in the midst of peace ; all of whose 
advantages to her may be comprised in 

1. A partial, a very small reduction of her pub- 
lic expenditure. 

2. The diminution of insurance, and other war- 
charges on her trade. 

3. If a satisfactory treaty of commerce be con- 
cluded, a more free communication with the Eu- 
ropean continent. 

Whether or not the consequence of peace would 
be an extension of British trade and manufactures, 
is a question of difficult solution. By the majo- 
rity of those engaged in them, this question will 
be ansvvered in the negative. And the expected 
improvement of the finances of Britain by a peace, 
is evidently much over-rated. 

No peace therefore ought to be made by Bri- 
tain except on terms commensurate with her pre- 
ponderance in war ; terms highly advantageous 
to herself, and conducive to the safety of conti- 
nental Europe. It is not enough that the basis 
of negociation be such terms as would satisfy Bri- 
tain if she were in the situation of France. For 
if she even possessed the power of France she 
would be infinitely less dangerous to the liber- 



654 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

ties of Europe, than is that restless State. Moral- 
ity in Britain, among private and public men, is 
by no means at so low an ebb, as with the giddy 
people of France and their perjured ruler. Bri- 
tain does not negociate with her neighbors for the 
express purpose of deceiving them ; or persist in 
a domineering control, after declaring their inde- 
pendence by solemn treaties. 

Had Britain been in the situation of France, 
treaties so advantageous as those of Luneville, 
Amiens, and Presburg, would never have been 
violated by the wanton excesses of ambition. 
Has this ambition been moderated since the peri- 
od when the British were compelled to renew the 
war with the common enemy of human kind ? 
Does Bonaparte's conduct for the last seven years, 
particularly justify Britain in showing again that 
confidence which she so unwisely evinced in the 
treaty of Amiens, and which confidence he has 
so grossly, so basely abused ? 

Intrigue and falsehood have always been the fa- 
vorite instruments of the French government ; but 
these weapons are wielded at present with an as- 
surance and activity beyond all former example. 
Bonaparte as far surpasses in bold and systematic 
fraud his republican predecessors^ as they were 
superior to the old government. 

After the experience of the treaty of Amiens, a 
Mate of perturbation and anxiety worse than war, 
Britain ought to be satisfied with no treaty of peace 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 655 

between her and France, which does not contain 
the provisions of rea/ tranquillity. Its conditions 
must be explicit and incontrovertible. Britain 
must never again rely on the professions of her 
enemy, nor even upon that moderate system 
which it is his interest to pursue. She must lay 
her account with meeting an insatiable spirit of 
aggrandizement, which will explain in its own 
favor whatever shall not be clearly defined, and 
will seize for itself whatever shall not be occupied 
by Britain. 

It is a common practice in capitulations on the 
continent of Europe, that the French impose upon 
the credulity of those with whom they treat, by 
inserting a clause, that *' wherever the conditions 
of surrender appear doubtful, their interpretation 
shall be in favor of the inhabitants." The capitu- 
lation is signed, and the gates opened to the 
French, who enter and violate successively t under 
pretext of necessity, every stipulation which they 
have made. 

Bonaparte only desires peace at present, for the 
sake of breaking it more advantageously hereafter^ 
Yfox is predominant in his thoughts, and aggran- 
dizement by fraud or force the perpetual object 
of his solicitude ; ambition, instead of being sa- 
tiated by success, preys upon his mind, and grows 
by what it feeds on. In 1803, Vv hen he consider- 
ed the British ministry as feeble, foolish, timid and 
spiritless, threats were his favorite weapons. He 



656 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

menaced Britain in his message to his own coun- 
cils, in his communications to Lord Whitvvorth, 
in his appeals through Andreossi. 

But when the British had defied his threats, and 
dared him to the conflict, he adopted a ditTerent 
tone. In his overture for peace in January 1805, 
he assailed the hi/7nanifij of Britain, and affected to 
extol, as of incalculable value, those Indian con- 
quests which he well knew were barren glories. 
In I8O6 he represented himself to Mr. Fox as 
aogrieved by preceding administrations, as un- 
justly attacked, and as anxious to make every sac- 
rifice for so inestimable a blessing as peace. lu 
his communications with Britain at that time, he 
pretended to congratulate the country on the ap- 
pointment of a ministry " estimable by their illu- 
mination;'^ while at the same hour he instructed 
his emissaries to seek access at St. Petersburgh, 
and endeavor to detach that court from all British 
alliance, by traducing Mr. Fox as the most fickle 
of men; as absorbed in interests purely English j 
and an enemy to the co-operation of Britain and 
Russia. 

How poor Lord Lauderdale was sent to Paris; 
how he was duped by Talleyrand; how he was 
laughed at by Champagny; how he was insulted 
by General Clarke; and finally sent bootless home 
from Paris to London, it is needless now to dwell 
upon. 

The evils of war and the advantages of peace 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 65^ 

are so greatly on the side of France, that she ought 
to account no sacrifice, except her national honor, 
too great to avoid the one, and obtain the other. 
Britain has conquered from her and from Holland, 
Pondicherry, St. Lucia, Tobago, Surinam, Curra^ 
coa, Demerara, Essequibo, B M"bice, San Domingo, 
Martinique, and the Cape of Good Hope; has de- 
stroyed the French navy, and made the flower of 
her seamen prisoners. Against all these acquisi- 
tions, France has to place only Hanover; so unjust- 
ly occupied that it is doubtful if she should be al- 
lowed to introduce it into the scale of equivalents. 

The conthiu a fice of the war promises to be equal- 
ly in favor of Britain. She causes to France in- 
calculable deprivations and annoyance by her 
fleets and armies ; while the sum total of French 
injury to her consists in petty, privateering depre- 
dations on her trade, and in the threat of invasion. 
Of invasion no one doubts that the issue would 
be favorable to Britain. France challenged her 
rival to the combat by denying that she was able 
single-handed to withstand her. Britain accepted 
the defiance ; she has fought for nearly seven years, 
and been unifoTmlij victorious. 

While the advantages of zvar are thus entirely 
on the side of Britain, the benefits of peace are 
nearly in the same degree on the side of France. 
No v/onder that in such a situation the well-wish- 
ers to Britain should urge a continuance of war 
until circumstances justify the expectation of 

4p 



658 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

greater tranquillity in peace; more especially as 
the British finances are, in consequence of the 
powerful operation of tl>e sinking tund, in a siate 
of extraordinary prosperity ; in such a state that, 
although for tue year 1^09, a year unexampled 
in the weight of expenditure, the enormous sum 
^i eighty-three millions and a fraction is granted for 
supplies, yet the addition to the national' debt du- 
ring this year is less than one, ^ ft ieth o^ the aggre- 
gate amount; and not equal to the actual yearly 
diminution of the public debt by the progi'essive 
depreciation in the value of money. 

War, no doubt, is a great evil ; but peace with 
danger and dishonor, is a far greater evil. It is the 
fashion among all democrats to make it a merit in 
any man to desire peace, and to display a great 
parade of words which cost nothing, and in their 
mouths mean nothing; I allude to the perpetual 
phraseology of " general good of the human race" 
— " blessings of humanity; horrors of war, blood 
and slaughter; unprofitable consumption of the 
labor o^ fellow-men in the arts of destruction," and 
a vast variety of other matter equally edifying ; as 
if the question of w ar or peace were a mere, na- 
ked, abstract proposition; and not, like every oth- 
er great question involving the interests and for- 
tunes of men, to be always examined and decided 
upon according to the circumstances with which it 
is connected. 

France has no prospect of either taking any of 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 659 

the British settlements, or of re-capturing any of her 
own which she has lost. It is therefore the duty of 
Britain to insist upon the safely of continental Eu- 
rope in a negociation with the common enemy. En- 
dangered, like the rest of the world, by the fatal prep 
ponderance of France, the common safety of the 
world can only be found in those provisions which, 
obtained by sacrifices on the part of Britain, shaH 
arrest the career of French aggression against wealc- 
€r states. 

By the acquisition of all Italy, and especially o€ 
Venetian Dalmatia, France has opened a direct road 
to the heart of the Turkish empire ; in the projected 
dismemberment of which Bonaparte will not now be 
contented with Egypt as his share. He will tempt 
Russia to co-operate with him in the partition of 
Turkey, by offering her Constantinople and the 
heart of the empire, pretending to desire for himself, 
at first, only the maritime part; he will flatter him- 
self, with his characteristic perfidy, that he will soon 
^nd means of expelling her from her new acquisi- 
tions; and that, seizing for himself the whole of 
Turkey, he will ensure the acquiescence of Russia in 
his future usurpations by the threats of immediate 
war; threats by which he long overawed Austria; 
and by which he vainly thought to intimidate Bri- 
tain. 

Such a barrier therefore must be secured on the 
&ide of Turkey, against Dalmatia, as shall enable 



660 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

her to withstand either the secret intrigues or the 
open violence of France. 

Malta is now less necessary to France, but 
doublj' important to Britain. It is no longer re- 
quired by Bonaparte nsa stepping-stone to Egypt j 
but is indispensable to Britain as a central sta- 
tion from which to detach her squadrons, in order 
to assert the integrity of the Turkish empire or 
to impede its downfal, should Kussia, seduced by 
the perfidious intrigues of France, concur in the 
'base partition. Malta therefore must be ceded to 
Britain ; it can be intrusted to the honor and cour- 
age of a British garrison alone. 

The retention of the Cape of Good Hope by the 
British is obviously dictated by the avowed designs of 
France upon India. The Cape is highly important to 
the trade of Britain ; it is the intermediate climate to 
season her troops to the burning sun of India; the 
station from which she can threaten Mauritius, when 
the ambition of France again forces her into war ; 
above all, the retention of the Cape is imperiously re- 
quired by the absolute subjection of Holland to 
France. If the Cape be restored tt) Holland, it will 
become a depot to France for the assemblage of ar- 
maments against India. 

Britain then might, on condition of retaining 
Malta and the Cape, which no power can wrest 
from her, venture to forego the advantages of a state 
of warfare that is to her every where successful ; and 
submit to that increase of strength in France and 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 661 

her allies, which will be the speedy consequence of 
peace. She might restore all her other conquests, 
and acknowledge the past, changes on the continent 
of Europe ; provided France give up Hanover, con- 
sent to the establishment of a barrier on the side of 
Dalmatia; give an indemnity to the king of Na- 
ples, now cooped up in the Island of Sicily ; guaran- 
tee the independence of Spain and her colonies un- 
der a government of their own choice ; and give as- 
surance that in future no more changes in the state 
of Europe shall be attempted. 

The treaty of Amiens is no valid argument against 
these conditions. It is an example indeed of less 
satisfactory terms obtained under an equally favora- 
ble combination of circumstances. But the treaty 
of Amiens is universally acknowledged to have been 
a compact in terms altogether inadequate to the 
just demands of Britain. At that time, the British 
people, weary of war, vainly expected to enjoy in a 
nof7imal peace the blessings of real tranquillity. A 
feeble, cowardly ministry, anxious to obtam a little, 
fleeting popularity, made concessions to Bonaparte, 
evidently inconsistent with the just rights of Britain ; 
and most impolitic and pernicious in their opera- 
tion to the British empire, to Europe, and to the 
world. 

The narrowness of the principles of that treaty 
ensured the impossibility of any permanent peace. 
The relations of the two powers were not accurately 
defined 5 no bar was put upon the ambition of 



662 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

France ; there was no treaty of commerce, an ob- 
ject of the first consequence in preserving a good 
understanding between the two powers. Hence 
all thinking men jusflij inferred the insincerity of 
France, and the very puny intellect of the British 
administration. 

A treaty which only makes a kind of temporary 
provision for the interests of the day, neglects to 
lodk into futurity, and to fix, as far as possible, those 
nmtual obligations which may give permanence to 
the relations of amity, is obviously far worse than 
continuf-d vvar. It is in fact no more than a truce. 
It gives a little breathing time to the belligerents, 
who afterwards rush into hostilities with new causes 
of irritation, and with more deadly rancor. 

That the treaty oi Amiejis was of this kind subse* 
quent events have fully proved. The manner in 
which the detiniiive treaty itself was negociated au* 
gured every thing unfavourable to the interests of 
Britain. It was protracted, cold, and harassed by 
questions and discussions on subjects which were be- 
fore settled in the preliminaries. And after all, it 
was little more than a transcript of the preliminary 
arrangements ; and instead of taking a wide and ge- 
neral basis, left equal room for the future assumptions 
of the enemy and the complaints of Britain. 

The ambition of Bonaparte could not even be re- 
strained until the definitive treaty was signed. Al- 
most immediately after the signing of the prelimina- 
ries *' Louisiana," said Lord Grenville in his celebra- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 663 

ted speech on tliis subject in the House of Lords, 
** was added to the power of F. ance. This was not 
all ; the ink was still wet, the wax was not yet 
cold, with which this treaty was concluded, when 
Piedmont, the bulwark of Italy, was annexed to 
the French empire. Then, seeing the indifference 
of the government of Great Britain, the blow was 
struck by which the ancient ally of the British 
Crown, the king of Sardinia, was driven back from 
his seat. Let us look back into the progress of 
events. The treaty was made in the month of 
March, it was ratified in May ; in June Piedmont 
was by a formal decree annexed to France ; in Au- 
gust the Consular government made a grand 
sweep and disposal of the entire constitution of 
Germany, and of the powers in it. Not a day 
had elapsed, (he might challenge observation on 
the word) not a single day had elapsed, without 
some act of insult, indignity, or attack upon 
Great Britain or her ancient allies, since that 
time." 

But there were causes which operated more im- 
mediately upon the interests of Britain, and pro- 
duced suspicion in the government, and alarm 
in the people. Not only was Switzerland inva- 
ved, and her long-established liberties entombed 
in the yawning sepulchre of Gallic rapacity ; not 
only was Holland kept in a state of the most ab- 
ject subjection, in direct opposition to the terms of 
treaty, but her navy was at the disposal of France, 



664 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

and hostile preparations were forming in her 
ports for the express purpose of annoying Bri- 
tain. 

In France also, British property had suffered 
the grossest violence, while justice in the French 
courts was denied to British subjects ; a number 
of vexations and illiberal restrictions had been 
laid upon British commerce; and designs of the 
blackest treachery against the internal peace of 
Bt itain were discovered, happily in sufficient time 
to prevent their ripening into danger; but which 
did not the less mark, the character of the power 
with whom the British had so lately interchanged 
the pledges of friendship. 

Colonel Dcspard and his accomplices were 
known to be in the pay and under the direction of 
France. It was proved in evidence on the trial, 
that Colonel Despard h\vc\se\{ avowed this connec- 
tion, and deferred one of his projects becanse — 
" he waited for nezvs and money from France.^* 

The peace had scarcely been concluded before 
a number of persons were landed in different parts 
of Great-Britain and Ireland, under the name of 
commercial commissioners, but who were proved on 
their examination to be French military officers. 
In their possession were found instructions from 
the French ministers, directing to such inquiries 
as could have no relation to commerce, and could 
only be useful in a military view. 

At length, even the Addington ministry was awa- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, v^C. 66;5 

kened, and the British nation began to put itself 
into a posture of defence. It should however, be 
always remembered that Mr. Addington (now 
Lord Sidmoulh) did incalculably more injunf to 
Britain, by his foolish, feeble, administration, and 
his cowardly peace of Arniens, than Bonaparte 
could possibly have done by fifty years of war- 
fare against her. It is to be hoped that the 
British people will learn, from this fatal example, 
that ordinary minds are not fit to be intrusted with 
the helm of government ; that dulness and igno- 
rance are never innoxious in high political sta- 
tions ; that countries invariably perish when their 
movements are directed by zveahiess and timidity. 

Britam throughout the contest has always been 
successful. In the years of continental operations 
these successes were clouded by the disasters of her 
allies ; but when she was left alone in the struggle, 
they shone forth with undiminished lustre. In 1797 
the Emperor of Germany was forced to withdraw 
from the alliance ; and every jacobin at home and 
abroad predicted that the lot of Britain would be 
either an immediate invasion, or a humiliating peace. 
But the British replied to these gloomy presages by 
the victory of the Nile. 

In 1799 Austria re-animated, took up arms, and 
although at first eminently successful, was in the 
succeeding year compelled to acknowledge the su- 
periority of her rival. Britain, become again the 
enly object of the vengeance of France, atchioves^. 

4 Q 



666 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

unaided, the victory of Copenhagen, and the con- 
quest of Egypt. In 1803 Bonaparte re-echoes the 
vulgar opinion, in defying England to contend 
single-handed with France. Britain again decided 
the question ; and how complete would have been 
her triumph, and the disgrace of France, had nofe 
her victories been clouded by the disasters of conti- 
nental Europe ! 

The safety and superiority of Britain are assured 
by the inability of France to attack her otherwise 
than with troops weakened and divided by the ob- 
structions to their passage by sea. Britain therefore 
ought to exact from France and her allies the price 
of cessation from successful hostility. By sta, France 
is at present as completely humbled as when Britain 
dictated peace in 1763. She is now indeed ail- 
powerful on the European continent ; but that 
power to the British, who have defied it, can cause 
no intimidation. 
The cessation of continental war reduces the contest 
to inere maritime operations. In these the discovery 
of the plan of forcing the enemy to close action, by 
breaking the linCf has doubled the former superiority 
ot Britain. It puts an end to all evasive manoeuvres, 
and leads promptly to that direct trial of skill and 
courage, in which it is the birth-right of Britons to be 
irresistible. A French fleet cannot now, as formerly, 
sneak ofl" after exchanging a iew broadsides; they 
have now no alternative, but to sacrifice half their 
ships, or come to a general engagement. The re- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, v^C. Q67 

suit of a naval battle is no longer the capture of a 
few vessels, but tlie almost entire annihilation of the 
enemy's squadron. 

The a(:cessii;ns of strength to France by land, 
great as they have been, are equalled by the increase 
of nritaiii's naval ascendency; and were all the 
combined fleets of Europe to assail her with united 
st'enj2;tl), the result would be to her a series of bril- 
liant victories. 

But zvhaf prospect is there of peace for Europe ? 
Bonaparte, to be sure, has made repeated overtures 
for peace, accompanied by flaming professions of 
humanity, in which it would be a satire on the cre- 
dulity of any one to suppose that he was considered 
sincere. As well might we deem him a devout 
papist because he has found the re-establishment of 
popery in France conducive to his popularity; or 
Ct)nsider him a convert to Mohamedism, because in 
Egypt he proclaimed himself a prophet, and the de- 
stroyer of Christianity. 

In all his negociations his constant practice is, 
during the overtures, and in the early stages of the 
comraunicarions, to projnise every thing. But in 
the arrangement of the actual conditions, where the 
explicit nature of the terms prevents the possibility 
of subterfuge, he uniformly resorts to the most de- 
termined obstinacy, and provoking delay. This 
has been invariably the French mode of conduct 
ever since the first explosion of the revolution ; but 



668 HINTS ON THK NATIONAL 

Bonaparte far excels all his jacobin predecessors in 
this career of fraud and falsehood. 

When Lord Malmesbury was sent to Paris in 
1796, the Directory agreed to treat on the basis of 
mutucil cessions; an admission which they after- 
wards qualified by the very temptrate and consistent 
declaration that they would listen to no proposals 
contrary to the constitution, the treaties, and the 
fundamental laws of the Republic; namely, that 
constitution by which the chief part of their acqui- 
sitions was annexed to France, uhile the remainder 
were erected into republics dependent upon her; and 
those XvediX'xes by which they had guaranteed to Spain 
and Holland the restitution by Britain of all her 
conquests. 

If the British yield to Bonaparte in any one 
important point they will find him altogether m- 
tractable in every other. Remember the delays 
and artifices which he practised at Amiens. Even 
then it was necessary to threaten and to equip ar- 
maments in order to make him agree to the very 
few sacrifices which Britain required in a treaty 
so highly favorable to him. 

In negociation with Bonaparte, only one effec- 
tual plan is to be followed ; let the language of 
Britain be directand firm, and her terms explicit. 
Let her offer a peace on such conditions as her 
52/rce^^ justifies, and the security of continental 
Europe demands. Let her tender him a treaty 
on these conditions with the one hand, holding in 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 669 

the other the alternative of war. Let her adhere 
to these terms with inflexible firmness ; a firmness 
equally remote from haughtiness as from submis- 
sion. 

Bonaparte, as usual, will alternately storm and 
flatter ; but Britain must despise his threats, be- 
ware of his artifices, and refute his sophistry. 
Her claims are just, andA^r means are most am- 
ple for the accomplishment of these claims. She 
asks lo deprive France of nothing, but to stipu- 
late protection and tranquillity for continental 
Europe. If he refuse, let the war be continued ; 
and let him and all his vassal states enjoy the full 
benefit of perpetual warfare with the people that 
rule the ocean. 

Indeed, the well-known ambition of the Corsi- 
can offers no prospect as yet of obtaining those 
conditions vvliich alone can render peace eligible 
or safe. Pride and resentment are predominant 
in his heart ; the rage of ambition will stifle the 
dictates of sound policy ; and he will sooner en- 
counter all the evils of war than subscribe a treaty 
which is jz/i-^ to Britain, and which shall ensure 
the future safety of continental Europe." 

Yet base and unprincipled as is the character 
of Bonaparte, terrible and overbearing as is his 
power, the state of Europe is infinitely better 
now, under the ascendency of military despotism, 
than it could possibly be under the domination 
oi jacobinism. The military tyranny of France 



670 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

does call into exertion the loftier attributes of 
courage and of talent ; but the murderous demon 
ofjacobinism, as cowardly as it is cruel, as stupid 
and ignorant as it is cowardly, invariably destroys 
in its career of desolation, all the monuments of 
art, and all the records of science ; all the living 
intellect and valor which might at once protect 
and adorn the dearest interests of human kind. 
The army of France, therefore, has done well to 
wrest all power from the jacobins of France. 

Had the powers of continental Europe remained 
at peace, had they not armed against the destruc- 
tive encroachments of new-born democracy, jaco- 
bin-France would have involved them all in anar- 
chy and blood, and seized their dominions ; the 
travelling guillotine would have superseded all 
law, order, justice, decency, religion, morality ; 
every ves'ige of genius and of wisdom would have 
been swept away by the deluge of human blood ^ 
vulgarity, brutal cruelty, lust, rapine, murder, and 
every thing that can render man hateful and loath- 
some to his kind, would have been spread over 
all the face of Europe. 

Say then that the leaden sceptre of dulness and 
of ignorance were stretched over a slumbering 
world; that all the noble and daring faculties of 
the human mind were plunged " in the sleepy 
drench of the forgetful lake," that all of art, of 
science, of literature, were annihilated; that all 
the conveniences, comforts and enjoyments which 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 671 

the labor and the ingenuity of man, work- 
ini? with unremitted assiduity through a long suc- 
cession of ages, have contrived, planned, and exe- 
cuted, were swallowed up in the gulf of forgetful- 
ness ; that all the finer feelings, all the softer emo- 
tions of the heart, all that lifts man up nearer to 
the Great First Source of all perfection, were ob- 
literated ; say in one word, that the abomination 
of desolation — that jacobinism were triumphant , 
and what would be the condition of the human 
race ? 

Man would then wander on the great ocean of 
life, without buoy to float, without beacon to 
warn, without compass to steer, without chart to 
direct, without star to light him on his way. Ex- 
istence would be a weary and a cumbrous load, 
a misery and a curse ; and would compel the un- 
happy sufferer, as he stood " upon the bank and 
shoal of time, " to leap the gulf, to plunge into 
the confines of eternity, and to appear before the 
dread tribunal of his God; "uncalled, unhousel- 
led, unanointed, unannealed." 

, Resistance to jacobin Fra?ice therefore became a 
sacred duty : it held out the onli/ possibility of re- 
sisting her aggressions, and of repressing her en- 
croachments; and though resistance has failed to 
prevent her exterior aggrandizement, it has saved 
the European continent from civil disorder, from 
anarchy, from jacobinism. Although partitioned 
out among the Corsican and his allies and vassals. 



672 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

it yet has regular military governments ; and every 
change must apparently be for the better, by sub- 
stituting the vigor of a new dynasty in the room 
of the old, worn out, feeble despotisms that have 
during the lapse of so many ages slumbered over 
the continent of Europe. 

" Time, or the chances of war, or the violence 
of re-action from the people of continental Europe, 
may shatter down the overgrown empire of France, 
and either throw the states again into the hands of 
their lawful princes, or the clashing of interests 
may produce new and contrary combinations and 
alliances, which, by restoring the balance of pow- 
er, might once more establish the independence 
of Europe. 

No doubt, the moment that the marine of Bri- 
tain is conquered, from that moment she is blotted 
out from the list of nations. But of such an event 
there seems to be no very great probability. Bo- 
naparte has used every means which his own re- 
sources and his influence over other powers has 
furnished, to rival the British navy; but every ef- 
fort of this kind has been defeated by the genius 
and courage, the skill and intrepidity of Britain's 
naval officers and men ; and by the wise and vig- 
orous measures of her government. 

His own powerful fleets having been nearly an- 
nihilated, his next attempt was to seize those of 
weaker powers, and by combining them with the 
force of his allies in a general confederacy, to dis- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 673 

pute with Britain the empire of the ocean. That 
plan has also been broken, and the confederacy 
destroyed in its bud. France may build ships, 
but during the war she cannot fill them with sea- 
men. Not only her intercourse with her colonies 
is suspended, but even her own coasting trade i 
(notwithstanding Mr. Cobbett's assertions to the 
contrary j) she has in consequence ?io nursery for 
seamen. These can only be trained by long ot 
frequent voyages, which, whilst the war continues, 
cannot be made. 

Peace alojie can replenish the navy of France, 
and long experience render it efficient. This, 
however, is no impediment to a peace with France; 
for such is the superior skill and valor of British 
seamen, that no uneasiness need be felt as to the 
result of a naval engagement, under the best cir- 
cumstances in which France could place her navy, 
in case of a renewal of war. Should peace bring 
out of her ports a navy equal or superior in num- 
ber to that of Britain, the British would do as they 
have often done before, confide in the justice of 
their cause, and the blessing of Divine Providence, 
to crown their valor and dexterity with another 
addition to the splendid list of their naval victories. 

AVhether in peace or in war. If Britain be but 
true to herself, she may regard all the efforts of 
France to rival her as a maritime power, without 
dismay. 

The continuance of the present prosperity of 
British commerce, in the event of a peace, must 

4 R 



674 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

altogether depend upon the terms of that peace. 
The war ought to be maintained with perpetually 
increasing vigor and resolution until such a peace 
can be commanded, as will not only place Britain 
in a secure and prosperous situation, but will also 
affirm the future safety of continental Europe. 
The 7?ej^ peace which Britain makes, will be either 
the death-warrant of her own national indepen- 
dence, and of the liberties of Europe and of the 
world, or will secure her own privileges for ever, 
and uphold the rights and interests of all other na- 
tions against the domineering insolence of France. 

It is not the partial, the comparatively little in- 
terests of her merchants and manufacturers, that 
is noiv at stake ; but it is the interest of the whole 
British empire, and of all the posterity of the Bri- 
tish people; it is the interest of all Europe; nay, 
but it is the interest of America, of Asia, of Africa, 
of the universal world. 

Above all let Britain never place the shadow of 
confidence in the truth, the justice the honor, the 
moderation of the Fre?ich goverjiment. It is the 
most fatal error into which she can fall ; and that 
man is a most deadly enemy to his country who 
wishes to inspire such confidence. With such an 
enemy as France bvery suspicion ought to be awake. 
Neither the character of Bonaparte, nor that of the 
nation which he governs, in its present state, is enti- 
tled to any confidence. Justice and honor are out of 
the question ; interest, ambition, perfidy, violence, 
wrong, oppression, are the only principles of their 
conduct. 



* BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 67^^ 

Britain can never expect a peace to which she 
ciight to accede, until it is the interest of France to 
make it ; and the conditions of that peace will be no 
longei' observed by the present French government, 
than while they accord with the state of its interests, 
or the views of its ambition. Peace with such a 
government can hold out no cheering prospect to 
Britain, either in its arrangements or its perma- 
nence, until France imperiously feel it to be her in- 
terest to make, and to preserve peace. 

It is true, the navy of France is now in a state of 
deplorable degradation ; her colonies and her depen- 
dant states are become more limited ; the practica- 
bility of intercourse with those that remain is ren- 
dered a matter of most difficult enterprise ; and her 
commerce, before too contracted to produce any fa- 
vorable effects upon her internal wealth, has been 
reduced to the brink of annihilation, by Iter ozv?t 
decrees. 

France has indeed enlarged her territory to an ex- 
tent hitherto unknown j but she has neither secured 
to herself, nor to her newly organized states, the 
means of rendering her empire great and prosper- 
ous. Society must at least assume the appearance 
of tranquillity, before industry can be excited to 
those exertions which shall produce more than the 
mere supply of necessary wants ; and it is peace 
alone which, by encouraging general commerce, can 
recruit the energies of countries exhausted by revo- 
lutions, by exactions, and by war. 

Spain and Portugal by their hatred and resis- 



676 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

tance to France, are'a vast and a perpetual drain ot 
blood and treasure from Bonaparte and his slaves ; 
Holland is reduced to the verge of absolute ruin ; 
France has lost the only medium through which her 
foreiun commerce could circulate, the intercourse of 
neutrals : and Russia, blinded for a time by councils, 
the labyrinths of which she has not sufficient capa- 
city to explore, has plunged into a contest in which 
she has every thing to lose, and nothing essential to 
her real interest to gain. 

Bonaparte boasts of having an army of eight lutn- 
dred thousand soldiers; but if he had twice that 
number the whole of his military force could not an- 
nihilate a single British frigate ; the whole of his pow- 
er cannot give effect to his blockading decrees be- 
yond the limits of his own harbors ; and he must 
either be contented to stretch his bloody sceptre over 
a wilderness of desolation, or give prosperity to con- 
tinental Europe by a peace which shall open the na- 
vigation of the seas, and unite the interests of Britain 
and of the rest of Europe, by reciprocating the pro- 
ductions of their soil and mechanical skill, through 
the medium of a maritime intercourse. 

But this state of things ought greatly to encour- 
age the perseverance and patience, not to slacken 
the efforts of Britain. It cannot be inferred from 
this, that the time is arrived when an advantageous 
peace may be made with France. Every day's in- 
telligence from the continent of Europe proves how 
greatly every state at enmity with Britain is suffering 
from the interruption of its commerce ; but the ty- 



* BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN^ &C. 677 

rant of the continent, supported by his immense 
mihtary force, has the means, for a time, of stifling 
their murmurs, and crushing their resistance. He 
will, in the contest into v\hich he brings their suffer- 
ance with the power of Britain, push them to the 
utmost limits of endurance j and will first try the 
extent of British patience and firmness, before he 
will relieve the pressure of his ozun slaves, by enter- 
ing into liberal arrangements for a general peace. 

The navy of Britain is her right arm, is peculiarly 
calculated for offensive attack, and must continue to 
be wielded with vigor. It is in reality, what the 
lever of Archimedes was in imagination, the power 
that moves the zvorld. To relax in her efforts 
would not relieve Britain from the operation of the 
blockading decrees of Bonaparte, which existed be- 
fore the British government resorted to measures of 
retaliation ; and if ever Britain make a good peace 
for herself and for the rest of the world, it must be by 
always standing in the most menacing attitude ; by 
presenting the most undaunted front to external 
threats, and domestic privations. To yield is ruin ; 
and to betray impatience is to throw herself at the 
feet of her enemy. 

Of late Bonaparte has bent all his efforts to force 
Britain to renoimce her marifi7ne rights ; he is per- 
petually insisting upon a " a maritime peace ;" that 
is, a peace in which Britain shall renounce all 
interference and connection with the European 
continent ; and suffer her naval rights and ancient 
maritime jurisprudence, the firmest bulwark of 



678 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

her safety and prosperity, to become the subject 
of discussion and infringement. 

But the British people will not accept this basis 
of a treaty of a peace ; they will not suffer their 
naval superiority, the most precious gift of Provi- 
dence, the most valuable legacy of their ances- 
tors, and which has been confirmed to them by 
the genius and courage of their contemporaries, 
who have fought and died in their defence ; to be 
made the subject of negociatlon^ even for a moment. 
I thank God, that if Britain be only true to her- 
self, she can most triumphantly support the con- 
test. While her navy stands unshaken amidst the 
wreck of nations, her commerce will not only be 
protected, but enlarged. 

Difficulties only call forth the resources of a 
great people; and the resources of England are 
not exhausted ; they are not even impaired ; nay, 
but they are augmented by the continuance of the 
war. She possesses now an extensive and an in- 
creasing trade ; her capital, her industry, and her 
enterprise must finally break down all the barriers 
ivhich are opposed to her prosperity. Bonaparte 
knozvs this, and he fears it; and if he cannot either 
intimidate or cajole Britain into her own destruc- 
tion, he is prepared to acknowledge ihose maritime 
rights, against which he now so loudly declaims, 
and which for that very reason the British ought 
as strenuously to defend. 

This then is the glorious object of the present 
conflict ; Britain is called upon by every conside- 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 679 

ration of justice, honor, and interest, to defend 
and to uphold her maritime rights. They are as 
dear to her as the soil on which she treads, as the 
Gonstitution under which she lives, as the vital air 
which she breaths ; they are the only guarantee of 
her national independence ; they are the only sure 
pledge of her future commercial prosperity. If 
the sea cannot be her empire, let it be her grave. 
This is the true position, this is the high destiny 
a^ Britain ; and nothing but political suicide^ a total 
incapacity to meet the bounties of Providence, 
and to improve its blessings, can induce her io hesi- 
tate for a moment, as to the course which she ought 
to pursue." 

What then is the conclusion from all this ? The 
conclusion is, that Britain is to press forward most 
vigorously the war both by sea and land, to harass 
and annoy France ; to cut away all her external 
resources ; to impede and to cripple all her internal 
means ; and by every possible effort of terrible 
hostility to hasten the hour of re-action^ upon the 
French by the people of continental Europe ; to 
hasten that hour, when by the excess of misery, 
and by the destruction of all peaceful occupations, 
and the consequent general diffusion of military 
pursuits and habits, the whole continent of Eu- 
rope shall seek in resistance to France the only 
possible relief from her oppressions ; when the in- 
trepid Germans, the gallant Spaniards, the un- 
daunted Swiss, together with the other enslaved 
and insulted nations of Europe, shall pour their 



680 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

effective and armed population on all sides, and in 
perpetual streams upon the swollen and over- 
grown French empire, and its vassal states of old 
men and boys, but ill-fitted to withstand so terrible 
an assault. And let that hour of vengeance upon 
the tyrant be animated and illumined by the 
same generous aid of blood and treasure, of genius 
and heroic valor with which Britain now encou- 
rages the people of Spain and Portugal in their 
opposition to the common enemy of the world. 

The memorable counsel which Mr. Burke gave in 
the year 1796, respecting the mode and the spirit 
with which it behoved Britain to resist France, is 
still more applicable to the present contest, inas- 
much as the French power is now more formida- 
ble, extensive, and pernicious than it then was. 
In the eighth volume of Mr. Burke's v/orks p. 9.51 
— 264, are to be found observations full of politi- 
cal wisdom, which ought to be engraven on the ta- 
blets of the heart of every statesman. From 
them I shall extract as much as suits my present 
purpose, and for the remainder refer the reader to 
Mr. Burke himself 

" When I contemplate the scheme on which 
France is formed, and when I compare it witli 
those systems with vi^hich it is and must ever be in 
conflict, those very things which seem as defects 
in her polity make me tremble. 

The states of the Christian world have grown 
npto their present magnitude in a great length of 
time, and by a great variety of accidents. They 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 681 

have been improved to what we see them with 
greater or less degrees of felicity and skill. Not 
<?wf of them has been fornied upon a regular plan, 
or with any unity of design. As their constitu- 
tions are not sysieamtical, they have not heen di- 
rected to any peculiar end, eminently distinguish- 
ed, and supersedmg every other. The objects 
which they embrace are of the greatest possihle 
variety, and have become in a manner intinite. 

In all these old countries the state ha,s been 
made to iliepeopde, and not the people conformed 
to the .state. E\ery state has pursued, ni^t only 
every sort of social advantage, but it has cultiva- 
ted the wellare of every individual His uants, 
his wishes, even his tastes have been consltlted. 
This comprehensive scheme virtually produced a 
de<2^vtie oi personal liberty in (onus the most adverse 
to it. That liberty was found under monarchies sty- 
led absolute, in a degree unknown to the ancient 
com U) on wealths. 

He-ncethe powers of all our modern states meet 
in all their movements with some obstruction. It 
is therefore no wonder that when these states are 
to be considered as machines to operate for some 
one great end, this dissipated and balanced force is 
not easily concentred, nor made to bear with th^ 
whole force of the nation upon any one point. - 

The British state is without question that which 
pursues the greatest variety of ends, and is the 
least disposed to sacrifice any one of them to ano- 
ther, or to the whole. It aims at taking in the en- 

4 s 



682 mNTS ON THE NATIONAL 

tire circle of human desires, and securing for them 
their fair enjoyment. The Legislature of Britain 
has ever been closely connected in its most effi- 
cient part, with individual feeling, and individual 
interest. Personal liberty^ the most lively of these 
feelings, and the most important of these inter- 
ests, which in other European countries has ra- 
ther risen from the system of manners and the 
habitudes of life, than from the laws of the state 
(in which it flourished more from neglect than at- 
tention), in England has been a direct object of the 
governinent. 

On this principle England would be the weakest 
power in the whole system. Fortunately how- 
ever the great riches of Britain, arising from a vari- 
ety of causes ; and the disposition of the people 
which is as great to spend as to accumulate, has 
easily afforded a disposable surplus that gives a 
mighty momentum to the state. This difficulty, 
with these advantages to overcome it, has called 
forth the talents of the English financiers, who 
with the surplus of industry poured out by pro- 
digality, have outdone every thing which has been 

accomplished in other nations. But still there are 
cases in which England feels more than several 
others, though they all feel, the perplexity of an 
immense body of balanced advantages, and of in- 
dividual demands, and of some irregularity in the 
whole mass. 

France differs essentially from all those gov- 
ernments which are formed without system. 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 683 

which exist by habit, and which are confused with 
the multitude, and with the complexity of their 
pursuits. What now stands as a government in 
France, is struck out at a heat. The design is 
wicked, immoral, impious, oppressive; but it is 
spirited and daring; it is systematic; it is simple 
in its principle, it has unity and consistency ia 
perfection. 

In France entirely to cut off a branch of com- 
merce ; to extinguish a manufacture ; to destroy 
the circulation of money; to violate credit; to 
suspend the course of agriculture ; even to burn 
a city, or lay waste a province of their own, 
does not cost them a moment's anxiety. To them 
the will, the wish, the want, the liberty, the toil, 
the blood oi individuals is as nothing. Individua- 
lify is left out of their scheme of government. The 
state is all in all. 

Every thing is referred to ihe product ion o^force i 
afterwards every thing is trusted to the use o£ force. 
It is military in its principle, in its maxims, in its 
spirit, and in all its movements. The state has 
dominion and conquest for its sole objects ; dominion 
over minds by proselytism, over bodies by arms. 

Thus constituted, with an immense body of 
natural means, which are lessened in their amount 
only to be increased in their effect, France has, 
since the accomplishment of the revolution, a 
complete unity in its direction. It has destroyed 
every resource of the state which depends upon 
opinion, and the good will of individuals. The 



mA HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

riches of convention disappear. The advantaijes 
of nature in some measure remain ; even thf se 
are astonishingly lessened ; but the command over 
what remains is complete and absolu'e. 

Des])Otism will always finds means of despotic 
supply. In Fraiice the government has found the 
short cut to the productions of nature, and while 
oth-rs in pursuit of them are obliged to wind 
throtjgh the labyrinth of a very intricate state of 
society, it seizes upon the fruit of the lal)or ; it 
seizes upon the laborer himself. Were France 
but half what it is in population, in compactness, 
in applicabdity of its force, situated as it is, and 
being what it is, it would be too strong for most 
of the states of Europe, constituted as they are, 
and proceeding as they proceed. 

Would it be wise to estimate what the world of 
Europe, as well as the world of Asia, had to dread 
from Genghiz Khan, upon a contemplation of the 
resources of the cold and barren spot in the re- 
motest 'I'artary, from which first issuefl that scourge 
of the human race? Ought we to judge from 
the excise and stamp-duties of the rocks, or from 
the paper-circulation of the sands of Arabia, the 
povVer bv which Mahomet and his tribes laid hold 
at once on the two most powerful empires of the 
world ; beat one of them totally to the ground, 
broke to pieces the other, and in a few years over- 
turned governments, laws, manners, religion, and 
extended an empire from the Indus to the Py- 
renees ? 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 685 

MaJerial resources never have supplied, and 
never can sM;>ply the want of unity in de.^ign, and 
coristancy in pursuit. But unity in design, and 
perseverance, and boldness in pursuit, have 7iever 
wanted resources, and never will. We have not 
considered as we ought, the dreadful energy of a 
state, in v\hich the proper ty\\3.s nothing to do with 
the government, in which the property is in com- 
plete subjection, and where nothing rules but the 
7nind ol desperate men. 

The rulers of France have found their resources 
in erimes. The discovery is dreadful, the mine 
exhaustless. They have everything to gain, and 
they have nothing to lose. They have a bound- 
less inheritance in hope, and there is no medium 
for them betwixt the highest elevation and death 
with infamy. 

From all this, what is my inference ? It is, 
that this new system of robbery in F'rance cannot 
be rendered safe by any art ; that it must be de- 
stroyed, or it wdl destroy all Europe; that to de- 
stroy this common enemy of man, by some means 
or other, the force opposed to it, shoidd be made 
to bear some analogy to \\\e force and spirit which 
that enemy exerts ; that eternal vvar ought to be 
made against it in its most vulnerable parts. In 
one word, with France in her present state, no- 
thing independent can co-exist." 

It is evident that a living statesman in Britain, 
who follows in the mighty career of Mr. Burke, 
with equal steps, as to native genius and talent. 



6S6 HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

but perhaps with more varied and extensive infor- 
mation, (I mean Air. Brougham^ the author ot" the 
luminous and profound *' Inquiry into the Colonial 
Policy of the European Pozvers,") has his eye stea- 
dily bent upon the day of approaching re-action by 
the European continent upon the French empire. 
In the following passage he glances at this desira- 
h\e but terrible events with his accustomed splen- 
dor of eloquence. 

" In the person of Bonaparte the success of un- 
principled power is strongly exemplified. Yet we 
are far from measuring the amount of that power 
by the extent of the superficies over which his au- 
thority is felt. The minds of men are not bowed 
to the yoke. The elements of resistance are not 
extinguished. From the loss of civil occupations, 
a military spirit is fast spreading itself over 
the continent of Europe; and in the very cloud 
which blackens all our horizon, we may see the 
bow which is set for a token, that the tempest will 
not be forever. 

*' Whether or not this generation will live to see 
the troubled waters subside, and the ancient land- 
marks of the world re-appear above the flood, is in- 
deed more difficult to conjecture. But whatever be 
the destined means of our deliverance, we think we 
may say with certainty that it will not be accom- 
plished by a coalition of sovereigns ; (but by the 
people of Continental Europe, following the exam- 
ple of the heroic Spaniards, and rising in fierce and 
untamable resistance against the oppressions of 



BANKRUPTCY OF BRITAIN, &C. 68? 

France ;) and that if England is to have her due 
and proper share in this great redemption, it must 
be by persevering in her ancient maxims of just 
and honorable policy; and by exhibiting an inva- 
riable contrast to the violence and selfishness of her 
enemy." 

From all that has been said we conclude, that it 
is at once the interest and the duty of Britain sted- 
fastly to abide by that high-spirited and lofty decla- 
ration which she made to Russia, at an hour when 
the ivhole of Continental Europe, with the excep- 
tion only of Sweden, was combined against her un- 
der the auspices and direction of Bonaparte. From 
this declaration, dated Westminster, December 18, 
1807, I most gladly extract the following manly 
and nervous paragraphs, which display a dignity 
and an energy of character well-becoming a great 
and a magnanimous people. 

** The requisition of his Imperial Majesty of Rus- 
sia for the immediate conclusion, by his Britannic 
Majesty, of a peace with France, is as extraordinary 
in the substance as it is offensive in the manner. 
His Majesty has at no time declined to treat with 
France, when France has professed a willingness to 
treat on an admissible basis; and the Emperor of 
Russia cannot fail to remember that the last nego- 
ciation between Great Britain and France was 
broken off, upon points immediately affecting, not 
his Majesty's oxvn interests, but those of his Impe- 
rial ally*' 



6SS HINTS ON THE NATIONAL 

" But his Majesty neither iinrlei stands, nor will 
he arlmit the pretension of the Etnperor of Russia 
to dkfafe the time or mode of his Majesty's pacific 
negociations with other powers. It never wili be 
endured by his Mnjesty that any government shall 
indemnify itself for the humiliation of servinicy to 
France, by the adoption of an insulting and perernp- 
torv tone towards Great Britain. 

His Majesty proclaims anew those principles of 
mctrh'ime law, agamst which the armed neutrality, 
under the auspices of the Empress Catharme, was 
origmally directed ; and against which the present 
hostilities of Russia are denounced. 1 hose princi- 
ples have been recognised and acied upon in the 
best periods of the history of FAirope; and acted 
upon by no power with more strictness and severity 
tiiiiii by Russia, in the reign of the Empress Catha- 
rine. 

1 hose principles it is the ri^^hl and the duty of his 
Majesty to maintam; and against ere??/ confederacy 
his Miijejity is dttennined, under the, blessing ot Di- 
vine Provi<lence, to maintain them. They have at 
all times contributed essentially to the support of 
the maritime pow^r of Great Britain ; but they are 
bci ome incalcuUibly more valuable and important 
at a period when the maritime povver of Great Bri- 
tain constitutes the sole remaining bulwark against 
the overwhelming usurpations of France; ihe only 
refuue tt) which other nations may yet resort, in 
happier times, for assistance and protection." 

FINIS. 



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